Naruto no Hen'itai
by Sage of Seals
Summary: Evolution. Working over thousands to millions of years, it slowly changes our bodies. Sometimes, however, change speeds up, and new abilities are thrust upon those who least suspect it. Now, Naruto has to deal with being more than a human... a mutant.
1. Chapter 1: Changes

AN: Hey guys, SoS here!

I'm sorry for not updating for so long, so you get this nice juicy story while I try to bribe you with other things!

Anyway, this is the first chapter of yet another of my new stories, called Naruto no Hen'itai. Basically, it's Naruto but with X-Men influences. Originally, I had planned to at least have Wolverine in on it, but I don't know Marvel canon that well anyway and plus he'd be a flat character at best anyway.

So, anyway, I'd like to apologize again for my laziness. In apology, I'm going to put this up tonight, chapter 1 of Naruto of the Five Elements up tomorrow or Thursday and chapter 1 of The Curse of Immortality up hopefully by the weekend. In addition, I'm thinking of a trilogy of sorts, each story reflecting a different kind of chakra. There will be three stories: Naruto: Kami's Messenger, Naruto: Shingami's Warrior., and Naruto: Nature's Call. So review and tell me what you think, as well as which one you want me to start on first. I'll be leaving up a poll later, so don't forget to respond! Finally, I unfortunately have to put my first story, A Memory Long Lost, on hold. I had great plans for it, but between all my other ideas and my total lack of an idea of where to go next with it, I've decided to put it aside for now, at least until I can get back on track.

Now, as you have so patiently listened to my rants, enjoy! For here is my prologue/chapter 1 of my new, original story, Naruto no Hen'itai!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Prologue

Naruto trudged home as the last rays of the setting sun brushed the rooftops. His eyes dimmed as he remembered what had just happened, not two hours ago.

Mizuki had betrayed him.

Naruto stifled a sob. To be so hated, so _despised _ by almost everyone in the whole village for _so long_ and then to suddenly find out why you were hated? And then to find out that it wasn't even your _fault_? It was goddamn hard, to say the least. As his thoughts turned toward that particular secret, he remembered Iruka, and how understanding he had been with him, even though he housed the Kyuubi. Yup, Iruka had always been there for him, whenever he needed it. He smiled; the old man had always been there for him too- once Naruto had seen how the villagers treated the Hokage with respect and awe, he'd immediately known that's what he wanted. To be _acknowledged_. And now, thanks to Iruka-sensei and Hokage-jiji, he actually had been.

He took another right and continued down towards his apartment.

Even Ayame and old man Teuchi had stuck by him, always ready with a bowl- or ten- of ramen. They had been two of his first friends in the village, people who had accepted him for who he was, not what he carried. And now, with his new view of Iruka, Naruto actually started to believe that he might have a chance to make better friends with his classmates. Sure, he'd skipped out with Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru, but they were only passing friends at most, nothing special or particularly close. He sighed; at least he'd understand now if their parents kept him away from their children.

As the steps up to his building came into view, Naruto took one last glance at the slowly emptying streets as well as the glaring citizens who obviously wanted him gone. His heart sank, but at least he could feel their pain. Heck, _his_ parents had probably been killed in the attack! He probably had been living with his parents' murderer in his gut and hadn't even realized it.

Sometimes he'd wanted to scream. At other times, he'd wanted to rage and sob, asking why, _why_, he deserved this. And yet, at heart, he knew he couldn't. This was the village that ojii-san loved, after all, and he'd do anything to protect it, even put up with the glares and beatings of the villagers.

Naruto was a great deal deeper than many of his classmates thought.

Flopping down on his bed after unlocking his door, he tossed his goggles haphazardly onto his dresser and fidgeted with his new headband. He knew he should feel _somewhat_ happier than this, but there was just so much to deal with now. Oh well, at least he'd officially be a genin tomorrow. That cheered him up. After all, now he'd be a super awesome ninja, fighting armies, leading villages, saving princesses-

Ahem. Maybe he was getting a bit ahead of himself there.

But _still_. It meant that he'd at least been given the chance. And for that, he'd gladly hug the old man and do anything he wanted (besides give up on orange of course. That was surely the color of the gods!). Besides, maybe he'd be good friends with some of his teammates.

As his eyes slowly closed, a breeze blew through the window and brushed his nose, tickling it. Naruto twitched it unconsciously and soon began to fall into the welcome abyss of sleep. As the moon rose, a shadow danced across his face.

He may not have known it, but that night was the night his- and Konoha's- destinies were changed forever.

o-o-o-o-o-o

An eerie crimson light danced across the waters of a sewer, bathing the walls in a scarlet glow. The muddy water flowed towards one central source yet seemed to remain still, untroubled by the turbulence within. At the end of the hall, huge bars rose from the bank, rising straight to the ceiling, gold-colored and thick as trees. A single paper, adorned with the word _Fuuin_ (Seal), was stuck to the middle of the cage, while two blood-red eyes slowly opened from within.

"**Well, it's certainly been a long time since I've seen anything like **_**this**_**. Ah, but this seems to be promising- I can't be having a weak container, after all. I think I'll just take a backseat and enjoy the show, for now.**"

Raucous laughter echoed throughout the halls as the two gigantic eyes closed again and retreated back into the darkness.

o

o

o

o

**Mutation **

**It is the key to our evolution. **

**It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. **

**This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. **

**But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward.**

o

o

o

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Chapter 1

Naruto stirred in his bed as a few beams of sunlight hit his eyes. He groaned; couldn't someone turn off the sun? Turning over, he slowly opened his eyes.

Huh. He didn't remember putting his sheets on the floor. He didn't remember sweating like that all over the bed either.

Fidgeting, he eventually managed to goad himself into getting up. So, he sat up, moved over to the side of the bed and- fell flat on his face. _Ow_, that hurt his nose. Reaching his hand up to rub it, he actually took in his surroundings. How did everything get so tall? As the only- seemingly- logical explanation hit him, he screamed.

"DAMMIT! I SHRUNK!"

Looking back down at his hand he froze. Was that… _red_? And was that… _fur_?

Yup. He was definitely staring at his hand, which, coincidentally, was also a paw.

He yelped again loudly for good measure.

Bounding over to the only floor mirror in the room, he closed his eyes in nervous trepidation until he _just-_ _couldn't-_ _take-_ _it._

Staring back at him, right in the eye, was a small, bright red fox.

"Oh shit…"

It was a good thing that the window was open.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Dashing through the streets frantically, headband in his admittedly small mouth, Naruto ran towards the Academy with all his strength. Ignoring the heated looks thrown at him by the villagers, he quickly made his way towards the school. Huh? What was that?

Ah! Foot at three o'clock.

Bag at seven o'clock.

Several sharp. Pointy. Objects. At. Heh- maybe he should just go _around_ the nice kunai.

Several minutes later, Naruto found himself staring up at the door to his classroom, room 302. As he stared upwards, a certain suspicious thought made its way through his admittedly thick skull.

How, exactly, was he going to be able to get inside?

The normal morning chatter of students was interrupted by the loud noise of several rather hard knocks on the door, while a certain fox lay outside, whimpering and telling himself to never hit his head that many times in frustration again.

The chibi-toads floating around his head at the moment didn't help either.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Iruka sighed and rubbed his eyes. Class had started ten minutes ago and he would've given anything to bet that Naruto would be the first to arrive, twitching in his seat in excitement. Could it be that the multitude of events last night had unnerved him? _No, he wouldn't have given up that easily._ Unbeknownst to him, a vein twitched near the top of Iruka's forehead as he waited for the hyperactive blond.

The Academy teacher was normally a calm and collected man. Aside from his dealings with Naruto, he was a model shinobi and teacher, taking most things in stride. Of course, that was before he opened the classroom door and found a slightly dazed fox slumped outside, apparently the cause of the previously heard banging. On closer inspection, it proved to have something in its mouth.

It looked to be a headband.

Staring as the small, red animal sauntered into the room, jumped onto a desk after stumbling quite a few times, and curling up in a ball, Iruka was further shocked when said fox yawned, lazily raised a paw as if in greeting, and spoke.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei."

No, seriously.

If most of the class hadn't been distracted about the whole "talking fox" situation at the moment, they would no doubt have noticed that the animal's voice and speech did indeed sound _very _similar to that of the blond they had been waiting for. Iruka was not exempt.

A small, trickling suspicion began to work its way into the chuunin's mind. _No- it couldn't be_. But, he had to admit, it would indeed make some form of (twisted) sense well befitting both the hysterical events of the night before as well as the Uzumaki's general… eccentric, disposition. It seemed so _wrong_, though, somehow, for something so strange to occur after the boy's whole world had been all but shattered the night before.

It was all terribly ironic.

Ignoring the small sinking feeling in his stomach, Iruka proceeded to mentally dare himself to respond to this occurrence. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered, as it appeared that the poor teacher's brain was currently experiencing technical difficulties and would so be out of order for a short bit. All while he tried to make the connection between this small, red, 'foxy' Uzumaki Naruto and the Naruto who had, just last night, discovered of his own connection to a certain demonic fox. Perfect, just perfect. (Un)fortunately, it appeared that a seemingly suicidal fox had gone up to a certain pink haired kunoichi and, with his best kit-face eyes, pleaded for her to let him lie on her lap.

It didn't work.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, BAKA-KITSUNE?!" Several students passed out from shock as many others flinched back as the majority of their auditory organs were now somewhere in the vicinity of the afterlife. All remaining conscious students shied back as they watched the holy terror in front of them unfold. After all, a pissed-off Sakura is _not_ a happy Sakura. And an unhappy Sakura is… well, we'll just say that not just a few were fingering their manhood protectively at this point. After running away from the enraged pinkette for yet another minute, the small fox appeared to work up the courage to scream out,

"Sakura-chan! It's me, Naruto!"

Those who were still capable of sight and/or hearing watched soundlessly as the girl redoubled her efforts to catch the small fox, which apparently was the class dobe. Somewhere in Heaven, Kami was laughing her ass off. But that's beside the point.

As Sakura finally caught Naruto, one thought ran through their classmates minds- Do _not_ piss of Sakura. It didn't help that, after hurling him into a wall and leaving him to slide down onto his nose muttering strange phrases about butterflies and toads, Sakura stormed off back to her own seat, daring anyone to even glance at her as she stewed in her righteous fury. At this point, the fox's eyes appeared to be rather large swirls and he appeared to have moved on to the subject of "pretty mushrooms with polka-dots," a haphazard and sickly grin on its face.

Still refusing to completely accept what had just happened, the class stared blankly as the fox lay on the ground and proceeded to groan, rub its eyes with a paw, and flop back down onto the ground. It was at this point that something actually registered with Naruto's classmates- well, the feminine population at least.

There was a small animal on the floor.

It was a fox.

It was red.

It was obviously injured.

It looked to have soft fur.

"**KAWAII!"**

Jumping up in a futile attempt to escape, Naruto was left twitching as he was tackled and cuddled by a rather large group of prepubescent girls. Most of the male population of the room were, at present, possessing either a rather large drop of sweat on the back of their heads, a twitching vein on the top of their foreheads bulging in anger and envy, or both. As the fox struggled for breath, something caught Iruka's eye. He could only hold his breath as the small animal- which his mind had somewhat accepted as being the hyperactive blond at this point, how in the hell it happened, he didn't know- pointed its head at the ceiling and yelped, its brick-red fur starting to take on a slight crimson shine. Suddenly, the animal's fur _rippled_… and changed.

Sprouting from where the fox had previously been cuddled by a large number of girls, was left a mass of liquid-like substance, which quickly reformed itself into a shocked, confused, and somewhat relieved Uzumaki Naruto, complete with pajamas and nightcap. He sighed in relief, at least he was himself again. It was then that he noticed his current situation.

His position?

In the middle of several _very_ angry teenage girls upset over having their "foxy-kun" taken away from them.

A few (pain-filled) minutes later, a broken and bleeding Naruto was left lying on the floor in the front of the room as the multitude of females returned to their seats. Most boys were either struggling to keep their hysteria and laughter in while the rest were staring in pure fear. It should have been physically impossible to stick that in there! Not to mention that most were sure that those parts most certainly were _not_ supposed to bend that way-

Ahem.

"W-well," began a certain shell-shocked Iruka, chuckling nervously as he tried to get back on track. "As I was saying, a ninja must…"

Approximately ten minutes after, Naruto gave one last shuddering groan and dragged himself up to his seat before flopping down in his chair, head hitting his desk.

Nearby students flinched at the sound.

o-o-o-o-o-o

As Sasuke waited for the day to end, his thoughts wandered. Turning his eyes towards Sakura, he noticed that the girl's eyes were glazed over and occasionally would let out a small giggle. The Uchiha flinched; whichever fangirl fantasy she may be having, he did NOT want to know what she was thinking of. Next, his thoughts turned to the kid who'd done all that strange stuff this morning: Uzumaki Naruto, dobe extraordinaire.

Sasuke frowned; he still hadn't been able to figure out if that thing from this morning was prank, genjutsu, or… whatever. Although it was nice to see his fangirls torturing someone else, for all of the fifteen seconds that it last. But still, it really had seemed that, for all intents and purposes, the idiot _was _a fox, at least until the fatal glomping. He shuddered.

Besides, he'd seen lots of ninja dispel techniques, and he'd never seen anything that looked remotely like the change that the Uzumaki went through. Going from a fox to pajamas… it _was_ kind of strange. His eyes narrowed. If the dobe had some kind of weird powers, he would _have _to have it.

A few seats away, Naruto stirred and groaned. He was no longer sore from the beating itself, thanks to Kyuubi, but the memory itself was just something he didn't want to remember anytime soon. He flinched; anything _that_ painful should be illegal. Suddenly, he remembered what had happened that morning and his eyes widened. _Fox, dammit, I'm a fox!_ Raising his hands to feel the shape of face he stared at the slightly pink skin- not red fur- and sagged in relief. At least he wouldn't have to worry about that problem. Something tugged at the corner of his mind. He couldn't help but feel as if he had forgotten something. He looked down. Oh. Heh.

"NARUTO-BAKA! PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!"

Yeah. He was still in his pajamas. Naruto groaned, fingers scraping against the sides of his face as he slumped lower into the chair. Oh, this was just great, really. If only he actually had his clothes on and not these stupid-

Feeling something move against his skin, he looked down- and froze. There, on his body, were his boxers and t-shirt. However, something was different about them- they were changing, flowing into a new shape. Faster than you could say "bad fashion sense," the blond was once again wearing his blindingly orange jumpsuit. He tugged it. It pulled up a little. He poked it. The zipper deflated a bit. Turning around, he noticed Sakura staring at him, her eyes wide as saucers. Still confused, he turned the other way and saw Sasuke looking at him out of the corner of his eye with barely concealed interest.

"Naruto," Iruka began. "What…_ exactly_… did you just do?" He finished his question slowly, putting a spin on it that made Naruto sure that he'd want to answer the question.

"W-well, Iruka-sensei, I dunno. One minute I was sitting here in my boxers, and then thought about how I wanted to be dressed and, well, there I was. Ta-da!" He grinned and closed his eyes, spreading his arms and displaying his jumpsuit, hoping to get the teacher off his case. Unfortunately, it didn't work. In fact, it looked like his eye was twitching. Naruto groaned, his head was beginning to hurt a bit.

"I-I'm serious. I really have no idea how. It's just like this morning; I woke up as a fox, and, well, you know what happened from there." As he finished, the bell rang, giving the signal for all the ninja-wannabees to rush out of the classroom with Iruka shouting after them.

"Naruto," the chuunin began sternly as he saw Naruto begin to rush out of the classroom. "I don't know what's been going on, but we're going to have to do something about it. We can't have you suddenly turning into a fox in the middle of the street." Naruto steeled himself.

"We're going to see the Hokage about this."

Naruto's face brightened.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Sarutobi sighed as someone knocked on his door. He glared at the desk. Infernal paperwork! Why couldn't it just disappear! Putting his head in his hands, he let out a long breath and called out, "Enter."

The door opened and there stood his secretary, Kichigai Shuji. Being responsible for bringing his work for the day up to Hokage's office, she tended to see a bit more of his… _irritated_… side than most others. At the moment, though, she was panting heavily, her face set in a scowl.

"Hokage-sama. Chuunin Umino Iruka is here to see you. And he's with the dem- I mean, the _brat_." Her mouth twisted into a disgusted expression, no doubt in thought of the blond Kyuubi container and the Sandaime groaned internally. He could make all the laws he wanted, but he couldn't change the way people thought. He brought his head up to bear and looked straight into his secretary's eyes.

"Send them in," he said flatly, his speech coming out tiredly. Shuji flinched back , mouth still twisted in distaste, no doubt hoping for the "demon child" to be kicked out. Bowing hurriedly, she left, leaving the door ajar. Sarutobi's eye twitched; that woman would be the death of him yet.

Hearing footsteps clunk up the long staircase to the office, the Hokage's thoughts turned towards the blond Uzumaki. Surely he should have been rocketing up the steps now, with Iruka chasing him not close behind? His heart sank as he realized the possible implications. If Naruto had been affected negatively by the events of last night, he would have to everything possible to help.

As he turned his eyes back to the door, his worries were lifted as he smiled softly. There was Naruto, entering the office, tired yet somehow happy, hands behind his head. Following immediately behind him was Iruka; the scarred chuunin's face worried and protective, though his eyes were somewhat proud if clouded.

"Sit down," the Hokage said kindly, gesturing towards the two chairs sitting before his rather large- and paperwork-covered- desk. The two sat down, obviously grateful.

"Now, what seems to be the problem?"

o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto fidgeted in his seat, feeling the gaze of the two older men before him.

"Do you mean to tell me," the Hokage began, "that you somehow physically… _transformed_… into a fox?" His voice was serious as his stare bore into Naruto, the boy shifting in his seat.

The genin looked up at the old man, feeling uncomfortable. His head was still hurting; in fact, the ache had grown to a dull throbbing behind his eyes. To make things worse, he felt a little warm as well. Tugging at the collar of his orange jumpsuit, Naruto let out a deep breath and answered shakily, "Y-yeah. I woke up this morning, and, well, there I was: a fox."

"And," the Hokage continued, "You, in some way, managed to change your sleeping wear into the jumpsuit that you are wearing now." His voice remained quiet, but a small twinkling had appeared in his eyes as Naruto continued to squirm in his chair.

"Yeah," replied Naruto quietly. "I just thought about how embarrassing it was to just be sitting there, just wearing my boxers,"- he cut off, blushing a bit before resuming- "and I wished that I was wearing my normal clothes." He shrugged before looking up at the Sandaime, unflinching, as if awaiting an answer.

"Do you think that you could perform this at will? Say, right now?"

Naruto nodded silently and closed his eyes in concentration.

Picturing a fox in his mind, Naruto focused on the image, imagining his body changing into that of the small animal. This time, the change was easier to feel as his very skin seemed to fold in on itself into a smaller frame. Opening his eyes, he looked up and immediately saw that everything seemed taller. Naruto flicked his tail and twitched his ears. The ache hadn't gone away; in fact, it had gotten worse.

Sarutobi stared at the fox in front of him, its tail swaying back and forth. "Very well, Naruto, you may change back," he said, his tone betraying his excitement. He'd sensed _no_ chakra being used during the transformation, none at all! The possibilities with this ability were truly endless, especially if he could change into different forms, as he had with his clothes. Turning towards Iruka, the Sandaime's musing was interrupted by a loud noise to his left. Moving quickly, he immediately focused on Naruto.

Or rather, where Naruto had been. His chair now lay on the ground, cast aside and upside down.

And Uzumaki Naruto was lying on the ground, writhing in agony.

Painpainpainpainpain! He rolled around, head exploding over and over again. Bright lights flashed in front of his eyes as his limbs flailed against the floor. His head felt like it was on fire, as though a hammer had been pounding on his skull. His arms shrank, changing into the fuzzy forelegs and paws of a fox before changing back and filling out again. Thrashing about on the floor, spittle came flying from Naruto's mouth as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head.

And then he was still.

"Hokage-sama!" exclaimed Shuji, bursting into the room. "I heard-" She stopped abruptly as her vision took in the unconscious form of Naruto. He still twitched slightly as she stared with a perverse form of fascination. Her lip curled upwards slightly as she let out a small chuckle.

"ENOUGH!" The fear and fury of the Hokage were practically boiling off in waves, melting through the defenses of all those in the room. Even Iruka looked scared. "Your actions and attitude disgust me. Leave, Kichigai Shuji!" The mentioned woman looked up suddenly, terror and confusion in her eyes. She tried to protest, but the only sound that resulted was a frantic gasp as she tried to register how quickly the situation had changed.

"Iruka, take her out of here. I have no desire to have this woman in my office any longer." The terrified chuunin nodded sharply at his Hokage as he stared at the mess on the floor, true comprehension of Naruto's pain still absent in his shock.

"Come, Naruto," the Third said softly, picking up the boy and jumping out of the window, speeding toward the hospital as fast as he could. He had made a promise to the boy's father and he intended to keep. He had assured Minato that he would not let any harm come to his son.

Approaching the doors to the medical building, Sarutobi took a deep breath and prayed he wasn't too late.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sarutobi stared worriedly at the boy that was currently lying on a bed in front of him. Soft lights illuminated the room while pieces of machinery twinkled and beeped, nurses and doctors rushing by outside in the halls. His anxiety turned to smoldering fury as he thought of how numerous doctors had refused to care for the "fox brat," as they had called him. No matter, there were more important things to be dealt with.

"H-hokage-sama!" gasped out the head medic-nin as he burst into the room, holding a large folder full of paper in his hand. "It appears that Uzumaki has fully stabilized and we can expect full recovery." The doctor's sweating ceased as he saw the Hokage's features come to be at peace once more as he learned that his unofficial grandson would be all right.

"However," he began again, "There were certain…anomalies in his data from his blood tests." At this, Sarutobi's face snapped up, frantic.

"Tell me, what are these "anomalies?"" The old man's eyes were glinting in the dim light, his concern for the blond child showing through.

"Sandaime-sama," continued the doctor, bowing hurriedly. "When we took samples, we viewed something very surprising. In fact, if I hadn't seen it myself, I frankly wouldn't have believed it." He let out a nervous laugh as the Third's face grew tighter. "It would appear that something has happened to alter his genetic material." The Hokage's eyes widened.

"Explain."

"Well, sir, it would appear that, very recently, his DNA has undergone quite a few changes. It appears to be much more malleable, able to change into other shapes quite easily. This would seem to be the cause for the strange… transformations that you informed me of." Sarutobi nodded calmly.

"However, as you thought, it should indeed be possible for the child to form into other shapes at will; it should take some time and practice though." The Third nodded again; hopefully, this new ability should prove useful to Naruto in his shinobi career.

"Unfortunately," the doctor began somewhat shakily, "It appears that this power is not without its price. As cost for this new form of DNA, I'm afraid that Naruto 's body has indeed… changed. Sarutobi's mouth went dry- _No! It can't be!_- as a horrible thought came to his mind.

"No, Hokage-sama, he is not a demon." The Third let out a sigh of relief, before remembering that all was not resolved yet.

"Well? "

"I am afraid that the introduction of a new gene changes things dramatically. Though he appears to be a person like us, his DNA holds the possibilities of so much more." The doctor pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

"Uzumaki Naruto… is most likely no longer completely human."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: HA!

Well, of course you were all expecting that to happen. As for why I gave Naruto this power, kitsunes are traditionally shapeshifters, so it only seemed fair.

Anyway, review and tell me what you want the powers of the others of the Rookie 12 to be! I may listen, I may not, but I'd love to hear your ideas.

Finally, don't forget to respond to my poll about which one of my "Chakra" stories you'd like me to get started on first. Poll comes down a week from today.

R&R Please!

SoS, out!


	2. Chapter 2: Developments

Chapter 2

AN: SORRY! For taking so long. I feel like an ass, really. But! I will be doing my first replies to reviews now, so get ready!

First, though, I have to thank all the awesome people at for giving me the idea of writing FanFiction as well as Kishimoto for starting the concept.

On to reviews!

**Jasmine**: Naruto was not given this ability by the Kyuubi; as I have said earlier, all of the Rookie Nine + Team Gai will be getting powers. However, as Kitsune are traditionally shapeshifters, it affected his mutation, as well as augmenting some of his powers to a higher level. Sarutobi won't be able to do much about it, at least for helping him to learn about it. It will be concealed from the council; however, it will come out in the Chuunin Exam Finals for everyone to see; by then, about two-thirds of the Genin 12 will have their powers.

: It's different from bloodlines in that kekkai genkai are programmed to work with chakra as a natural energy source, whereas mutants are a whole different subspecies all together, giving them something much different to work with. All of their powers may in fact be similar to jutsu, but they will be much more powerful and more applicable. I'll be putting in more about mutations in flashback this chapter.

**The Dragon Bard**: I understand your complaints, but, from what I've seen, Zetsu and Kisame and such were never actually classified as "human." Hell, it's blatantly obvious that Sasori, at least, wasn't biologically human at the time of his death. We've even got freakin' ninja cats, dogs, and frogs (oh my)! Besides, once again, some "inhumane" appearances may very well be due to, as I replied to ^^, due to their chakra. We've seen the toad-like Sage Mode, and Orochimaru is very snakelike, if only because of his experiments- hell, _Sarutobi_ even said he was no longer human! Finally, Suigetsu was experimented on, and so I like to consider him along the lines of the "failed" mutant from X1. (Sorry if this seemed like a rant; I just wanted to get rid of this concept cleanly- some mutations are less humanlike than others. For example, Naruto's shapeshift obviously requires a _huge_ adaptability trait as well as many other differences. However, someone like Cyclops, per se, would be closer to human, as the only difference would be the presence of the laser "glands" by his eyes. Hope this makes sense.)

**Geetac**: Thanks, dude, and keep reading!

**VanillaIce1**: Yeah, you are right in that I was going for something original. We've all read the "Naruto dies and goes to X-mansion" theme a bazillion times, as well as the "Naruto is trained as an X-man and returns later" plot. So, I decided on something new. There will be **no** original series x-men in this story, though I may include some OCs if I feel the need. There will be some traits/powers/etc. that carry over from canon, but there will be no "Wolverine", no "X-Men", and no "Four Horsemen" or any of that stuff, especially as I have no knowledge of canon other than the movies. Thus, a full Naruto fic, not a crossover, and merely influenced by the concept.

**ToothAndClaw**:I haven't seen Teen Titans, so I wouldn't know, but Naruto will find _many_ uses for his abilities. Just rest assured, though, that he won't be overpowered; there will be much difficulty in mastering it and I doubt he'll even be able to change into many different forms at will until after the Chuunin Exams. Until then, he'll be stuck with a fox and whatever animals he manages to develop an affinity with.

Just to dangle something in front of you, Naruto _will_ transform into Kyuubi at one point and retain himself, but don't expect it to happen for a _long_ time. In addition, there is another aspect of his shapechange that I may or may not decide to add. Can anyone guess what it would be? (Hint: it's related to his transformation into Kyuubi, as well as something that happens near the end of this chapter)

Anyway, I'm done rambling. So, Bon Appétit!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto slowly walked home, his thoughts racing. He ignored the sneers and glares of the people around him. Absentmindedly, he scratched the side of his head, as if in contemplation of what was going to come next. He'd had more surprises in the last 48 hours than most people got in their lives, and frankly, he was extremely close to just screaming to let out his frustration.

The Academy.

His graduation.

The Kyuubi-

Oh, _Kami_, the Kyuubi.

He'd been putting off thinking of that little situation for a while, maybe subconsciously hoping that it would just go away. But then again, it was kind of a shocker when you found out that you had the most powerful demon in existence sealed into your gut. Undoubtedly, there were possibilities. After all, a ninja had to prepared to use anything as a tool, right? But then again… he didn't know what risks there might be.

He took a breath and slowly let it out.

He hadn't been this thoughtful yesterday. He guessed it had been the shock that had kind of stalled him, but with the combined discoveries of both the fox and this strange… power… of his, he was just as confused as anything.

Oh, yeah, his power. When he'd first experienced it, he had panicked. Simple as that. Of course, as time passed, he'd started to think of the possibilities with some small shinobi corner of his mind. He could do so much with this! Even if he could just do a fox, then that still open up so many doors! But-

He still wondered if it had anything to do with the nine-tails. It just seemed so, _coincidental_, that the day after he finds out that he's the jailor of a fox demon, he also gets the power to change into a fox. Admittedly, that thing with the clothes was weird, but still! Now that he knew the secret, would it _never_ leave him alone? At least he now knew why everyone had hated him. But still!

He sighed again.

This new… _ability_ of his honestly perplexed him. He had originally been entirely ready to test it out as much as he could, changing into as many forms as he could so he could become really strong. After that episode in the Hokage's office, though- maybe it's safe to just say that he decided to be a little more cautious afterwards.

They _had_ released him from the hospital earlier that morning- his regeneration factor had made sure that he was never injured and/or sick for more than a few hours- but he was still liable to be a little careful with this new power.

_But what if you didn't have to?_ questioned a small voice at the back of his mind. The idea tickled at and, as he thought about it, it would be a good idea. But, he would definitely have to take his time. Eventually, though, he'd get it.

His gaze hardened with determination and he closed the door behind him, having just entered his apartment.

_Oh yeah. I'll definitely master this._

After all, after Kagebunshin, how hard could it be?

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Midmorning sunlight drifted lazily into the room as Sarutobi Hiruzen paced back and forth in his office. Paperwork, forgotten, lay ignored as the Hokage walked, his hands clasped behind his back, mental gears turning. He'd been stressed lately, with the Chuunin Exams being held in Konoha in a few months, and this recent turn of events hadn't helped. And there had been one boy at the center of it: Uzumaki Naruto. First the Kyuubi, now… this. He'd been planning to tell the boy about the fox when he turned sixteen, along with his heritage. Sarutobi had wanted the boy to be able to defend himself when his parentage was revealed, as well as be able to have the happiness derived from ignorance of the demon. Oh, how naive he had been; of _course_ someone would eventually tell the blond, law be damned. At least Naruto seemed to be taking it well…

And with that his mind drifted to other thoughts. Namely, the _other_ new development concerning the Uzumaki. The Hokage would have never in his wildest dreams imagined that the hyperactive child would be the one to awaken some never-before-seen power. Admittedly, he _had_ expected the boy to carry on the Will of Fire, but that was more of a metaphorical thing. Now, though, he would at least have an ability to aid him. Unwillingly, a thought came into his mind- _How can I use him?_- but he pushed it away. He had always been a peace-loving man, and the idea of making children into weapons sickened him. No, he was no Danzou.

But still, he was the Hokage, and had to make sure that each of his soldiers- loath as he was to think of Naruto as one- were able to fight hard, well, and ruthlessly. At least this way, though the blond could live up to his fullest potential. He supposed that Naruto would have to learn to control his abilities; after all, they could be a great asset if manifested properly. Espionage, assassination, assault- his mind was awash with possibilities. The ability to change yourself into anything- anything!- or even anyone. And so he remembered the conversation he'd had with the head medic the other night when discussing the new development.

--_Flashback_--

Sarutobi furrowed his brow. Not human? And if the demon was unrelated… he looked up sharply at the doctor, Yakushi Fujo. "Continue, he said, the tiredness in his voice gone. It wasn't a request. The man chuckled nervously before replying.

"Well, sir, as I said, the boy's DNA appears to have been altered in some way." Seeing the old man's eyes, Fujo took a deep breath and continued.

"You know how primates and humans are very similar genetically, correct?" Sarutobi nodded once. "Well, it varies from species to species, like a chimpanzee, which shares 96 percent of the same genetic coding as us. Hell, even _bananas_ share more than half of their genes with us. A fruit! But the Uzumaki…" He trailed off, shaking his head.

"Have you ever wondered how we can all look so different, us animals, and yet have so similar genetics?" Not waiting for the Hokage's slow nod of comprehension, Fujo went on. "It's because, down there, there are those few bits of information that make sure that everything else _fits_, that it all _works_. It's the part that tells your DNA what to do and how to do it. But, here… it's been changed. That, it would appear, is the reason for his new state." His voice took on a new tone, clearly getting into his element.

"Most of the time, these genes act as organizers, making sure that the body's composition stays constant. However, with this _new_ gene in the picture, it appears that it has, for lack of a better word, unlocked his genetic structure to the process of rearranging. Somehow, it has connected his very genes to the brain itself, to the hippocampus, where it can be given- _prompts_- to change.

"Anyway, with this new gene, he should be able to change his own form at will." _That_ got Sarutobi's attention, snapping his eyes back to the lecturing medic. "Of course, because of the great number of other factors, as well as a connection to the prefrontal cortex, it may be possible for him to transform when feeling extremely heightened emotions.

"I'm not exactly sure why or how he underwent that seizure earlier, after transforming. It could just be a form of shock after his sudden 'mutation'. As for why it didn't happen the first time, well, he apparently changed while asleep, and perhaps his body had yet to completely adapt. Again, I'm not quite clear on why he changed into a fox, per se; it could be a side effect of the youki present in his system.

"The bottom of the line is, we've got a ninja here can- physically!- change his body on a whim. For his sake, I do hope he learns to use it well, and responsibly." Seeing the Hokage's confusion, Fujo let out a snort of mirthless laughter. "Hokage-sama, I have been at this hospital for over fifteen years, and any animosityi may have otherwise had for Uzumaki is overridden by my duties as a doctor. In addition, my hatred would have been long gone after seeing the _things _that this village has put him through." He practically spat the words out, as if in disgust- which he was. He was a medic, damn it, and he felt sick to his stomach to see the suffering visited upon the child. His hands tightened before suddenly relaxing.

"Yes, he's got a fine opportunity. However, every medical condition requires a name…" An excited look entered his face as his eyes glittered. "Changing so rapidly like that… it's almost like a variable. Yes, exactly like that." He stopped, lost in his thoughts before going on.

"A variable, yes…

"We'll call it… the X-gene."

--_End Flashback_--

Sighing, the Sandaime sat down in his chair, fingers rubbing his temples slowly. Yes, he'd been very surprised when he'd learned of the effects and possibilities of Naruto's changes, but then he remembered the implications of such.

--_Flashback_--

"Sandaime-sama, there is… something else you should know."

The Hokage raised his eyebrow. "Hm?"

"I've also found that the mutation was set off by the spreading of a certain hormone. In other words, an offset of puberty. Now, it seems reasonable to me, as he has exhibited none such abilities before now, as a teen, that his changes are linked to his physical development." Sarutobi blinked.

"So, in other words, his body's maturation activated the mutation?" Fujo nodded.

"Yes, and even though he's the only case I've seen, the genetic changes themselves are small enough to lay unnoticed, at least until they activate. So, I ask if you would please keep on the lookout for any other strange developments." The Hokage's eyes widened.

"You mean-?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Although it is statistically unlikely for anyone else to gain Uzumaki's exact power, it is possible for another, possible of his age group to access his or her own latent abilities. And in answer to your actual question-

"Yes. There may well be more."

--_End Flashback_--

Sarutobi sighed and looked out of the window. Why did life have to be so… complicated?

He turned back to his desk and soon lost his previous thoughts in the throes of paperwork.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto drew in a breath, looking at the trees had hit with his shuriken, each blade piercing the wood close to the centers of the targets he had painted on. He grinned and wiped some sweat off of his forehead before flicking it off onto a log on the ground beside him, half destroyed by a multitude of punches and kicks. He looked around quickly before turning his attention back to the targets in front of him, drawing out some kunai from his pouch. He flicked his wrist and all three blades took off, two hitting the targets and one missing. He frowned. It looked like he'd have to practice more with these, and even after all that other training! _No,_ he scolded himself, _I'm definitely getting stronger, no matter how hard I have to work for it._ He panted slightly and walked over to retrieve the kunai, stowing them back into the pouch on his leg. _Well, I guess there's only one thing left to practice._

Since the episode in the Hokage's office, Naruto'd been a little skittish about the whole idea of changing his shape. He'd been at the hospital plenty of times before, sometimes hurt real bad, but _that_ time just hadn't felt right. Whatever had happened had not been fun. The old man had told him about something with "genetics" and "mutations," but he'd just kinda tuned it out. Come on! It sounded like school stuff! He shuddered. Even so, he knew that it _would_ be better if he tried to get some form of control over this thing; even though he hadn't asked for it, Naruto knew that he would make Sarutobi-jiji proud with it! But then again… he still really had no idea how he'd done it. That first time, he'd been asleep; the second time had been an accident, and when he'd shown it to the Hokage, he just kind of _did_ it.

He still didn't know how, he'd just kind of thought of it and it had happened. One minute you had Naruto, genin of Konoha, and- Boom!- little red fox. He pinched his nose and groaned; couldn't there ever be an easy way? _I guess not._

Somewhat cautiously, Naruto slowly focused on the thought of a fox. He concentrated on the image, willing the change to happen, imagining the transformation. When he opened his eyes, he looked down, expecting to see paws. Instead, though, there were only hands and feet. Whatever he'd done before, he didn't know how to replicate it. He narrowed his eyes: when Uzumaki Naruto set his sight on something, he didn't ever give up!

Now… what had gone wrong? He'd tried to concentrate on the fox, tried to force the transformation, tried to- he stopped, a thought rising lazily to the forefront of his mind. Maybe he shouldn't have been trying to force it, maybe he should have tried to… what? It was hard enough to concentrate on the change, let alone actually make it happen, something he still had no idea how to do! _Wait…_ his eyes widened. Concentration- that was it!

Iruka-sensei had said something one day at the Academy about focus being one of the most important parts of a ninja's repertoire, whatever that was. At the time, he dozed off for a while before skipping out with Kiba, but maybe now it could be some help. He grit his teeth; he _would_ master this. He slammed his hands together in the seal of the ram, channeling chakra through his body, starting out slow and small, but gradually building it up, adding up more power and speed. "Rrrrrrggghhhhh...!" And- there!

A flash, a bright set of color flashing across his vision. A sense of _stretching_, of a barrier, and then-

An image- a fox, but… grey?

BOOM! The pent up chakra exploded, pushing Naruto back toward the trees. He slammed into one and groaned, rubbing his head. "What the heck was that?" he wondered aloud. His head stung, stars glittering across his vision. "Okay," he mumbled. "Don't wanna try that again." Naruto got up again slowly, looking around to see if anyone had seen that. "All right," he began. "I've just gotta keep working at it!" he finished cheerfully, his normal personality back. _But how…?_

"I know I saw something there," he said to himself. "But… what was it? I remember, some kind of a… a window? And, yeah, past that there was… hm… oh! Right! A fox!" He leaned back against the tree. "But why a _stone_ fox?" He shrugged. "So, it looks like I got _somewhere _with that. Now, what do I hafta do now?" Naruto looked down at his hands, as if daring them to become paws. Nothing, of course, happened to them. "Crap."

"I wonder…" he started, looking up into the tree's branches. "If that big explosion-thingy happened 'cause of all that chakra… maybe if I didn't use chakra… and just focused with the seal?" He nodded. "It's worth a try."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

From her hiding place in the bushes, one pale-eyes Hyuuga watched Naruto train. She had been frightened when he looked to be hurt, but at least he seemed alright. _Naruto-kun, you never give up, do you?_ She smiled softly. When she saw the blond put his hands back together in a hand seal, she frowned slightly. _What are you doing now?_ Perplexed, she stayed still, activating her Byakugan once more. Unlike before, her bloodline limit didn't pick up the massive amounts of chakra- _how did he do that?_- however, there was something… different. She could see it now!

From a spot near his stomach, soft yellow lines of energy were spreading themselves throughout his body. _What…what are those?_ Hinata gulped. And then, before her eyes, the boy…changed. Just like what had happened the other day.

Most of the students had written it off as some kind of henge-based practical joke, worthy of Konoha's number one prankster (though many of his male classmates grumbled from the hugs the Uzumaki got from girls when looking like as fox), but she herself wasn't so sure. Now, her thoughts were confirmed.

Even as she watched, Naruto seemed to _melt_ in on himself, just like he had earlier. His clothes melded to his skin and melted into it, leaving an orange pigment. His torso shrank along with his limbs, which turned to forelegs and paws, and a long bushy tail erupted from his tailbone. She held in a gasp from seeing; she had never seen _anything_ like this. And yet… she felt a kind of giggle rising up in her. _Heh… Naruto-kun… you really are special. _

Smiling softly, she fled back to the village, leaving behind nothing but the rustling of leaves.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto glanced over at the bushes. _Huh… I thought I saw something._ He shrugged. Oh, well. Back to work. He put his palms together and concentrated once more on the image of the fox. There was the barrier, and… there! Not a barrier, but a window! He reached through and felt the change come on again, his body shrinking down. He looked down at his paws and yipped excitedly. The transformation had come easier this time, so maybe all he needed to do was train some more. Naruto's mouth turned up into a vulpine smile: putting effort into training was what he was best at!

Frowning, he sat up on his haunches, tail swaying gently behind him. He thought this ability of his was pretty cool, but… what was it actually good for? The old man had said something about spying, but that was boring and without any action. _Hm._ Maybe… maybe if he turned into this fox, maybe he could control what it looked like? It was worth a try. At least he'd be _somewhat_ battle-ready if this worked. Scrunching up his slitted eyes, he brought up the picture of the fox. This time, though, he looked at it differently; seeing it wilder, tougher, and most importantly, taller. He opened his eyes and dashed over to a puddle on the ground (tripping over his own forepaws as he did so). What he saw made him gasp.

There stood a fox, ruffled and crimson, mouth agape in a toothy smile. Naruto remembered that he was looking at himself and looked even closer. Its body was better defined, and looked more suited for combat than the small kit he had been earlier. And even better, this fox was bigger. He shivered in anticipation and licked his lips. The fox he'd been earlier had barely been a foot of the ground and maybe one and a half feet long; now, he was at least four feet longer and a good three feet high at the shoulder. Naruto smiled to himself, showing off his large canines. He turned back to a human… and fell on the ground, tired and coughing. "I wonder…" he said aloud. "Maybe…"

He never finished the sentence before he was out cold. It looked like that change had taken a lot more energy than the other. At least he knew it wasn't his only form.

A weak smile on his face, he snored, hair blown gently by the wind under the afternoon sun.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sasuke walked down the street, hands shoved in his pockets. He glared down the street, kicking at a pebble with his shoe. He smirked coldly. Couldn't this village see that they were holding him back? A shopkeeper called out to him, brandishing his wares from the stole. "Uchiha-san, good afternoon!" the man yelled, and soon others were yelling too, hoping to get the patronage of the "last Uchiha" at their stall. Sasuke ignored them, of course, and kept walking. They weren't worth his time.

Idly, Sasuke rubbed his eyes. This village was useful to him for the time being, nothing more. Eventually, he'd get the power to go off after his brother. _Itachi…_ His lip curled. He looked up at the Hokage Monument and looked away, scowling at the visage of the Third. _And you just let it happen…_ Absently, his thoughts turned to the Academy. They were being assigned to genin cells in a day, so maybe…

He grunted."Hn." As if he'd need any teammates. They'd just drag him down with them. But still, hopefully he could get somewhat decent teammates, so at least they'd be better than cannon fodder. They would still be beneath him, but as an Uchiha, that was to be expected and he would accept no less. Sasuke rubbed his eye again; the thing was starting to itch. His hand dropped to his side and he continued on, ignoring the sensation.

"Sasuke-kun!" screeched out a pink-haired girl from the side of the road. She waved happily at him, ignorant of his thoughts. He threw a cold glare back at her and she stopped, looking down. Obviously she must think that her precious Sasuke needed alone time. He snorted. _Feh._ Sasuke went on forward, turn left down an alley on the way to his apartment.

He continued down that way for a few moments more when suddenly, the itching returned, this time resolving into a dull ache. The pain intensified and started to burn, Sasuke collapsing to his knees, clutching his face. Sweat started to roll down his brow and he twitched, not noticing the rattling of the garbage cans around him. And then, abruptly as the pain had come… in a flash, it was gone. He carefully took his hands away from his face and stood up slowly, exhaling a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Muscles unclenching, he took a step forward.

Sasuke took a look around, looking to see if anyone had noticed his seizure. No one was around, and he relaxed. He started back on the way to his apartment, at times, his hand reaching up unconsciously to touch the side of his eye. One thought ran through his mind, over and over again, overtaking all previous fantasies of revenge.

…_What the hell was that?_

If anyone would have looked in Sasuke's eyes then, they would have seen a myriad of bright red specks, dancing in the darkened irises before fading into the black, disappearing completely.

And so he trudged home, still sullen.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: Once again, everyone, I am really sorry that this is so late. Really, I have no excuse. But, it's taught me a lesson: I can't really keep a schedule. So, I'll try my best to get these out as fast as possible, but I can't make any promises. *sigh* The way I see it is, if I try to write as much of a chapter as I can per day, I should probably be able to do a chapter a week. Add that onto the fact that I'll have two or three other stories going on at the same time and… I'll probably update around once every two to three weeks for this fic. (At least it's better than _some_ people, *cough*year-and-a-half*cough*)

So! We see Naruto training himself in the ways of the Force! Well, not really, but you'll get more developments in the time to come. And, we get to find out more of his power! In flashback! Yay! And… what's up with Sasuke? For any questions about Naruto, leave it in a review, and, in the meantime, have fun guessing Sasuke's ability! (Hint: it's not emo-powers).

Anyways, here's the first part of a series of data that I'm going to be giving you: whenever a character learns of their power, I'll make a nice database for them and give it to you. How's that sound? First up, Naruto himself!

**Uzumaki Naruto**

**Status: Genin**

**Clan: Unknown**

**Specialty: Kagebunshin no Jutsu**

**Skills: High Endurance**

**Power: Shapechange- Can alter genetic structure to physically alter his shape in order to transform into animals. The mutation is benefitted by the sealed demon in his body, as well as influenced heavily in a fashion. May enable transformations into people with the addition of greater control, as well as open-ended bestial transformations with mastery, although at present any form other than a fox is closed off. May also have an additional aspect yet to develop.**

Hasta la vista!

-SoS


	3. Chapter 3: Teams

Hello, everyone, here's chapter 3! But first…

Darksnider05: You do have a point and I'll admit that I see where you're going. However, the way I see it, those with bloodlines are still completely human, whereas Naruto's genes have almost completely disassociated themselves, enabling transformation. Furthermore, another part of the Hokage's surprise was the fact that he had _not_ expected Naruto to have any semblance of a bloodline, except where the Kyuubi was concerned, and the doctor found no youki influencing him directly, so no-go there. But really, thanks for the input. As long as it's in a review, I don't care!

I'm Yu: You're right, Naruto does kind of have Mystique's power, except it's much more powerful. Mystique can change "skins" (like in a video game), but Naruto can change his entire physical structure and/or mass. Naruto may eventually use Mystique's range of abilities more fully, but, being the unsubtle guy he is, at least for the moment, he'll choose a battle-ready form and go charging in. As for Sasuke… don't take anything for granted. Glowing eyes aren't always connected to laser vision you know…

Ricieri1: Ah! So you have noticed my mistake! Well, not really… Personally, I'm a subscriber to the belief that kekkai genkai are gifts from demons/deities/etc., and, though they are transferred through ancestry, are more of a physical manifestation of something spiritual. As for people like Danzou or Kakashi… well, for the sake of RetCon, let's just say that those eyes are still part of the Sharingan user's body, whereas Kakashi could never evolve the copy eyes on his own (yes I know it's an asspull. Deal with it.) Basically, no matter how hard Naruto tried, he couldn't evolve himself into a bloodline holder. Poor him…

EDelta88: Hen'itai means almost exactly "mutant" or "variation"; so: "Naruto: Mutant Variation" or some such crap. (I've been dying for someone to ask that- you can tell, right?)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Chapter 3

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As Kakashi walked down the street, his nose in his book, he ignored the stares he routinely got from passerby. As a shinobi, he was always under scrutiny; even more so as Hatake Kakashi, the copy ninja, "master of a thousand jutsu." He sighed. It seemed like so few people actually understood what shinobi life entailed. Oh, well. At least he had his _Icha Icha_.

Giggling quietly under his mask, Kakashi ambled on down the road to the Hokage Tower, occasionally reaching up to turn a page. As he passed through the entrance, he got a nod from one of the chuunin on guard and continued on into the building itself. Going up the stairs, he absently wondered what he had been called for. A mission, perhaps? _Hmm…_

He reached the door and moved to knock it when the voice of the Third boomed out, "Come in!"

Kakashi slowly opened the door and sauntered in, eyes glued to his book while he ignored the stares he was getting from the others present. When he finally registered the attention, he looked up cheerfully. "Maa, Hokage-sama, so what did you need me for…" He trailed off, suddenly taking in the type of other shinobi present: all jounin, with mostly experienced ninja as well as some rookie elite. _What kind of mission could involve Yuuhi Kurenai, Gekkou Hayate, and the old man's son himself?_ he wondered absently. Even as he thought this, a cold feeling of suspicion and dread began to trickle into his thoughts.

"Jounin of Konohagakure," the Sandaime began formally. "You have been gathered here for one specific reason, one undertaken annually to preserve and nurture the Will of Fire." As the words came out of the Hokage's mouth, Kakashi began to sweat, hoping desperately that this wasn't what he thought it was.

"Because of your records and other accomplishments," the old man continued, "I have personally selected each of you to receive this mission which is so vital to our village." Kakashi was frozen stiff. _No, wait. Please don't let it be this! Please!_

"And so," Sarutobi finished, "Each of you will take under your wing a three-man genin cell, effective next week." There. He said it.

Kakashi mentally burst into tears as the full impact of having a team to train hit him. _No! This can't be happening! Less time with Icha Icha, less time reading Jiraiya-sama's greatness…_ Chibi-Kakashi pounded the ground with his fists while wailing loudly in Kakashi's mind. The grey-haired jounin sweatdropped. That was melodramatic, even for him.

"So, the teams will be as follows: Team One under Gekkou Hayate will be…" As the old man trailed off, Kakashi tried his best to ignore the situation as he buried his nose in his book- at least, until his own name was called.

"Team Seven, under Hatake Kakashi will be-"

The aforementioned jounin immediately looked up, focused on the next few names to come out of his superior's mouth. "- Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura. Team Eight will be…" _So, an Uchiha, the container, and… a fangirl?_ It was better than some others. Still, this team promised to be… interesting, to say the least. That is, if they managed to pass his test.

As the old man finished off the bout of names and teams, Kakashi moved to leave the office before he was stopped by a word from Sarutobi. Turning around, the copy-ninja saw the Sandaime looking pensive, with a few wrinkles crinkling his brow.

"Kakashi," he said. "I believe that there is something important that I must tell you about your team."

"Ah, so the Uchiha, then?" asked Kakashi without moving his eyes from the page.

"Actually, it's about Naruto."

Kakashi nodded lazily. "Mm-hm. The Uzumaki jinchuuriki. What about him? Something to do with the fox?" They both knew what would happen if that were the case- something would have to be done with him, whether good or bad. They couldn't risk the Kyuubi getting out of control. But the Hokage only shook his head slowly at the question.

"No, Kakashi, actually, it's something different entirely."

That got Kakashi's attention, if only in a minor way. "How so?" he asked cautiously.

Sarutobi sighed, looking tired. "You see, Kakashi, there's been a development…"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto breathed heavily as he walked up to the Academy, new hitai-ate tied tightly around his forehead. He smirked at the obviously dumbfounded instructors staring at him with undisguised curiosity and loathing and mentally chuckled madly. _Heh- let them wonder!_ He strolled confidently into the classroom, ignoring the bewildered looks many of his classmates showed him. It was Kiba who spoke first, leaping over to his desk and smirking viciously.

"Hey, Uzumaki, what're you doin' here? Can't you see this meeting is graduates only?" he asked haughtily.

Naruto only snarled back and pointed to his own headband. "Can't you see it, dog boy? Got the headband right here and everything!"

"Hn."

Naruto only turned and glared at Sasuke. "Nobody asked what you thought, Sasuke!" The Uchiha only glared at him before turning back to the front of the class. Naruto growled under his breath and stood up, promising threats of violence and mutilation. Suddenly, Iruka-sensei walked into the room, still bandaged up from Mizuki's attack. Naruto winced guiltily; in his discovery of his new "ability" and his training, he'd completely forgotten about his sensei.

"Naruto!" barked Iruka. "Sit back down!" Naruto grimaced and went back to his seat ignoring the snickering, as well as Sasuke's self-righteous smirk. As he turned back to his sensei, he couldn't help but notice Sasuke frown absently and put his hand to his eye, as if expecting something. Shrugging to himself, Naruto listened to what the scarred chuunin was saying.

"…and so we'll be putting you in squads of three men each. You will be expected to perform missions together, and so will have the responsibility to…" Naruto dozed off as Iruka went on about the responsibilities of being genin. _It's not like we don't already know this stuff,_ he thought. _He goes over this all the time._

"Team One will be…"

Naruto stared absently out the window, daydreaming as his teacher rambled on about the team placements. Images of Sakura, his pink-haired classmate, drifted across his mind. Blissful thoughts of his humiliating defeat of Sasuke and subsequent date with Sakura drifted across his thoughts until-

"Team Seven will consist of Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto-" _Yes!_ Naruto cheered.

"-and Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto groaned, but couldn't help noticing his crush cheering for her placement with her "true love."

"Hey, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted. "Why do I have to get stuck with that loser, huh?"

Iruka just glared at him. "Naruto, the teams were made so that they were _balanced_. You, having the worst scores of the class, were placed with Sasuke, the rookie of the year in an attempt to make the teams even."

"But-"

"No!"

While Iruka went on with the teams and the genin who were placed on them, Naruto quietly pouted, stealing a few heated glares at the raven-haired Uchiha- _ha! Stupid duck-butt!_

When the door opened and several adults walked in, though, his interest was perked. He noticed each was wearing a Konoha headband and wondered what they were there for. _Maybe…_

"These will be your jounin instructors," Iruka went on, and Naruto mentally cheered. _Oh yeah! Score one for Uzumaki!_

"-They will be your teachers and leaders," continued Iruka, "And you will be expected to obey them absolutely while you remain as genin."

A sickly looking man stepped up first. "I'm here for Team One," he said, coughing a few times as he waited for his team to gather in the front of the room before leaving with his new students. It went on like this for a while until Team Eight was called directly after Team Six. Naruto narrowed his eyes as the jounin went on until there was no one left but himself, and his teammates. _Where the hell is he?_

Two hours passed and Naruto found himself increasingly bored. "Damn it!" he exclaimed, ignoring Sakura's shout of outrage. "Where the heck is that guy?"

"Shut up, dobe," Sasuke said, and Naruto glared at him.

"You shut up, teme!"

"Hn," grunted Sasuke, before turning away and rubbing at the itch in his eye, the other day's episode still not forgotten.

"Well, if he's not on time," said Naruto gleefully, "Then he'll have to deal with the consequences."

"Naruto-baka!" yelled Sakura as Naruto put the finishing touches on his prank. "Don't do that, idiot!" she shouted, even as Inner Sakura roared in approval.

"Heh, loser," said Sasuke. "No self-respecting jounin would-"

_Clunk._

"My first impression of you all is- I hate you. Meet me on the roof."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kakashi looked over his new team, observing the glares that they were offering each other. He sweatdropped- _It looks like this'll be just another angsty team of arguers._ "Alright, everyone," he began, still looking at his book. "We're gonna go around and introduce ourselves so we know more about each other. You know, likes, dislikes, dreams, that sort of thing."

"What about you, sensei?" Sakura asked innocently. "Why don't you go first and show us how it's done?" Kakashi sighed. _And she's supposed to be some kind of genius?_

"Fine," he said. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, jounin of Konoha. I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream... I have few hobbies." The genin before him visibly twitched. _Heh, I can just imagine what they're thinking._

"Alright, pinky," he drawled, gesturing at Sakura and ignoring her shout of outrage. "You go now." _And at least try to make it interesting_.

The pinkette giggled before starting. "My name is Haruno Sakura," she said pleasantly, "And I like…"

She trailed off before stealing a glance at the Uchiha and giggling furiously while blushing scarlet. Sasuke just looked annoyed while Kakashi was visibly displeased as well. _Oh, Kami, it's worse than I thought!_

"I hate… Naruto-baka!" she snapped, causing Kakashi to raise his eyebrow in surprise, as well as making her blond teammate flinch. _This isn't good. A fangirl, the target of said fangirl, as well as… what? A "rival" for her affections? Geez. And Sarutobi-sama thought this__team would be a __good__ idea?_

Shaking his head over the shallowness of some preteen girls _(*cough* Sakura *cough*),_ he turned to his next student. "Now, you, broody," he said, nodding toward the glaring Uchiha.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone."

_Oh this is just perfect,_ thought Kakashi. _Just what we need: an avenger wannabee._ _Note to self: steer away from the topic of Itachi for a while._ "Finally, you, Blondie." Kakashi's last student looked up and grinned cheekily.

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto!" he cheered. "I like ramen, training, and sometimes foxes, though other times I don't really like them at all! I don't like… Sasuke-teme! My dream is to become Hokage! That way, everyone'll HAVE to acknowledge me!" Kakashi smirked underneath his mask. So Konoha's resident "demon" had high dreams, did he? And with the new discoveries that the old man had told him about, the kid was looking more interesting than ever. _Uzumaki Naruto, I'm going to keep my eye on you._

Of course, that didn't mean that he wasn't still an idiot, of course. That part would have to be worked through. But still; Kakashi was intrigued. _ So let's see: we've got a fangirl, a self-proclaimed" avenger, and an ambitious jinchuuriki._

"Okay, everyone, meet up at Training Ground 7 tomorrow morning at seven for a "test" of sorts. Don't eat breakfast- you'll throw up."

As he disappeared amongst the whirlwind of a Shunshin, the silver-haired jounin couldn't help but chuckle to himself. _Maybe I should've told them that "seven" means "10", hm?_

_Nah._

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Feeling awkward, each of the three genin went their separate ways. In another universe, Naruto might have asked Sakura out on a date, and would have been violently rejected. With his new abilities to focus on, though, he rushed to his normal training ground to see if he could make the change to fox any easier, maybe even change into something else for once. After all, you could only change yourself into a fox for so many times before you started to wonder if you could do anything more with it.

Sasuke himself brushed off the pitiful attempt Sakura made at asking him out, and just stalked toward his apartment, ignoring her downward glance as he gave her the cold shoulder. She wasn't worth his time.

Sakura could only stand there, watching her crush walk away, as well as the one person who she could always count on to ask her out, bringing her spirits up. Even if she always turned Naruto down, she could always count on him to ask her out somewhere. But in the introductions, he hadn't even mentioned her, and now he was just rushing away, ignoring her completely. And with yet another snub by Sasuke, Sakura began to feel very small, doubting both herself and her ninja abilities.

She watched them go, and wished to just slip away and disappear.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Reaching home, Sasuke snarled as he slammed his kunai pouch onto the table. The nerve of the council, putting him on a team with those two losers! _They'll do nothing but drag me down even more_. He snorted- what the hell did either of them have to offer him. Neither could possibly help him take down his brother.

Maybe the village thought it was doing him a favor, giving him a chance to shine. _Whatever_. It didn't matter. So long as he had the opportunity to get more power, he would take it, interfering teammates or not. Sasuke scowled fiercely; with such a lazy sensei, the man probably wouldn't teach him anything of use! As his anger grew, small objects around him started shaking. An image of his brother passed across his vision- _where did that come from?_- and he slammed a fist on the wall. A plate shattered.

His head began to throb, pain growing with the emotion before he crumpled to the ground once more. Slowly, the pain ebbed away and he was left clutching his head as the shaking objects began to stop their vibrations.

When the pain finally left, he stood up slowly. Whatever that was, it couldn't have been good. For now, he couldn't just go to a doctor and demand to be looked over- his pride wouldn't allow it. But if it happened again…

Sasuke happened to glance in the mirror and sharply gasped. There, in the reflection, was a slowly fading crimson shade dyed across his eyes. _Sharingan?_ he wondered. But no- the distinctive tomoe were definitely missing. As he watched, the scarlet finally faded and onyx black was left in its place.

Still angry over his placement yet disturbed by the seizure, Sasuke settled on his bed to think.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto, sweating happily, strode home from his training ground. He'd gotten the transformation to work three more times! Not only that, but he'd been able to change directly to the larger fox, and it didn't even take all his energy this time. Practicing a week HAD to have helped somehow!

As he went up to his apartment, he whistled cheerfully. New team, new sensei, new ability… Yup, things were looking up!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As the sun set and the moon rose, Sakura lay quietly in her bed, still in her kunoichi outfit. She could hear her parents murmuring softly in the bedroom across the hall, and she thought about this new stage in her life.

Obviously, being a genin would be harder than being a student. But by how much? With her big brain, Sakura had always been confident in herself, and had placed top kunoichi in her graduating class, but now… she wasn't sure if that was enough anymore. She closed her eyes and turned over onto her side.

Suddenly, she felt a curios sensation trickling down her back. She tried to move her arm and found she couldn't. Sakura opened her eyes and saw blackness, and so closed them again in fear. She felt cold… falling… falling… and-

_THUD!_

Eyes flying open, Sakura gasped and looked around herself in shock. _What just happened?_ Then, she took in where she was. _How-?_

She was lying on the sofa in her family's living room. Wide and spacious, it was a nice piece of furniture for a moderate civilian family. Only, she had just been sitting on her bed- _directly one floor above her_!

But that didn't explain what had just happened. Walking slowly back up to her room, Sakura could only shake her head in confusion.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: And thus ends chapter three. Setting up Team 7, as well as some minor differences. See if you can guess Sakura and Sasuke's powers, as well as try to guess what more there'll be. I'll tell you this much- some will be obvious, others… not so much. So leave your thoughts in a review.

Oh, and to put to rest, once and for all, the questions about Naruto shifting a bloodline, _he can't do it_. The way I see it, they are intrinsically connected to one's chakra, and though Naruto can/will be able to mimic a physical form flawlessly, he can't copy the "spiritual/mental" portion of that energy, and so can't create kekkai genkai for himself. Call it whatever you want, but that's what I'm going with. Besides, _none_ of the mutations will have _anything_ to do with chakra, which makes them special in a world filled with ninjas able to do extraordinary things. Compare Katara (Avatar) to Zabuza (Naruto). Who would win in a water fight? The former, of course! Heck, she could probably beat Haku, even _if_ the chakra-infused ice mirrors/senbon were immune to bending! And so on.

So, R&R

- SoS, out!


	4. Chapter 4: Testing

AN: Hello, everyone. Time for Review Corner™ with moi (yays).

I'm Yu: Good guess, though I won't be giving out any definite replies until their powers actually manifest in battle.

BDude0000: Don't worry, not everyone is going to get a "free power-up." For example, I can see Naruto not activating his mutation without the presence of the Kyuubi as a partial causation, whereas Sasuke and Sakura could be full mutants that would manifest anyway. There won't be just mutants; expect "incidents" (i.e. FF/Spiderman/Juggernauts) that can also give powers. Finally, on the subject of "too many" mutations… well… just remember that Orochimaru was a genetics specialist and we'll leave it at that.

Anonymous-ninja13: You got one of those guesses correct. (Though, may I frankly say that I am shocked that no one has gotten Sasuke's power correct yet.)

Neoslucius: Nice ideas, but I won't make any guarantees! And, just because I'm feeling generous, I'll let you know that you're wrong about Shika… but I won't admit anything else! Muhuhahahahaha!

Oh, and thank you all for reading. It means a lot to me that you like it!

Share & Enjoy!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Chapter 4

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto woke up bright and early for the genin exam the next day. He woke up, stretched, yawned, and plodded over to his closet to put on his orange jumpsuit. Scratching idly at his head in the mirror, he sported a lazy grin at the prospect of finally becoming a ninja.

He had had no doubts before that he'd become a kickass ninja, but with this new ability of his, he had no shortage of confidence. So, after watering his plants and leaping out the door (remembering Kakashi's warning about eating breakfast), Naruto sped down the road toward Training Ground 7, the clock reading fifteen minutes to seven.

Yup, today was definitely the day that he would start on his path to awesomeness, Naruto mentally cheered.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As she arrived at the meeting place for her team, Sakura tried her best to ignore her hungry stomach as she went over all of the possible tests that their sensei would throw at them. Trying to analyze every eventuality, of course, distracted her from thinking about last night- at least until her first teammate arrived.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out from behind a tree, running toward where the pink-haired girl sat. "Ready for Kakashi-sensei's test?"

Sakura rubbed at her eyes- really, it wasn't _decent_ to get up this early in the morning!- and answered with a smirk, "Of course, Naruto! Me and Sasuke-kun can breeze through this test, no problem!" Hearing Sakura mention the Uchiha, Naruto looked around for Sasuke, but to no avail.

"Hey," he said thoughtfully, looking up. "Where's the bastard, anyway?" Before Sakura could pummel him, a dark grunt interrupted her growling and both were forced to observe the arrival of their broody teammate.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted, and immediately went over to the last Uchiha, fawning over him and encouraging him. Of course, he managed to ignore it all, but it wasn't for lack of Sakura trying. Naruto groaned and slid down the tree he was leaning against.

"Hey, Sasuke-teme," Naruto called out after about fifteen minutes., during which the new Team Seven mostly sat and waited "Where do you think our sensei is?"

"Hn. He's probably just late."

Twenty more minutes passed and Naruto started to fidget. As he started using the trees as target practice, Sakura growled for him to stop throwing kunai and to just sit and wait for their teacher.

Naruto sighed. "Okay, Sakura-chan. I'll go to train somewhere else." And with that, he walked off and disappeared into the bushes. But when Sakura ran over to yell at him for not waiting for their sensei, she found only an empty brush with a small fox running away.

Muttering under her breath, Sakura returned to her seat next to Sasuke, who moved away a few inches, but otherwise ignored her.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sasuke grunted and rubbed at his eyes, grateful that they hadn't been acting up since the incident last night. As it were, he had gotten barely any sleep and was feeling very low on energy. Tired as he was, though, he couldn't help but feel apprehensieve yet a bit excited at becoming a true shinobi at last- though it was tainted by the laughing voice in the back of his head that reminded him, _Itachi did it sooner_. He mentally yelled for the voice to shut up and went back to brooding.

He was also feeling, though he would never admit it to anyone, nervous. Those seizures that had started with a mere aching behind his eyes and had elevated into so much more very quickly scared him, if only a little. And there was that rush that he had gotten, if only for a little while and only subconsciously.

Even as he lay thrashing on the floor, he had felt some small surge of power or energy throughout his body- and though he was still slightly cautious, he wanted that feeling back. For a moment, he sat still, staring into space, _willing_ that feeling to come back- but he found nothing.

Groaning, Sasuke leaned back and resigned himself to listening to Sakura's inane chatter until their teacher arrived. _Hopefully,_ he thought,_ she, at least, will fail._ He smirked- what need did he have for teammates when he was the rookie genin of the year? _None,_ he answered himself.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kakashi ambled up to the training area, sun already on its way to the peak of the sky as he whistled merrily, book in his face. Giggling, Kakashi tried to ignore the obvious glare coming from his lone female student, as well as the not-so-inconspicuous glower coming from his black haired student. He frowned. Where could Naruto have gotten?

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched, still upset over her blond teammate's absence, as will as incensed from the lack of her sensei's presence. Kakashi and Sasuke winced at the noise.

Several hundred yards away in the forest, a certain red fox looked up and thought, _ That's my cue_, before turning around and running back towards the clearing set aside for Training Ground 7.

"Well…" Kakashi said slowly, still confused over why he had only two-thirds of his team present. "I got held up, because there was this old lady who needed me to get her cat down from a tree, and then the Hokage had me get his groceries, and then I-"

"LIAR!" Sakura yelled, and Kakashi visibly sweatdropped, both at the sheer volume and at the transparency of his excuse. _I'm going to need to think up some better ones later, maybe…_

"Maa, maa," Kakashi said in a futile effort to calm his student down. "So," he said, trying to change the subject. "Where's Naruto?" Sasuke just grunted, but a holler from by the trees grabbed their attention.

"Hi, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called from where he was running to join them. "Sorry I'm _late_," he said, with particular emphasis on the word and glaring at the copy-nin. Kakashi only turned a page in his book, unperturbed. "But I was just training off over there while we waited." He jerked his thumb over at the trees and Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He hadn't _seen_ the Uzumaki training anywhere over there, so how had Naruto…?

Mentally shaking his head, Kakashi resolved to ask Naruto himself later.

"Anyway," Kakashi said. "There're a few things that I forgot to tell you guys yesterday- and you probably won't like it."

"Huh?" Naruto asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, what I didn't tell you was that the test I'm about to give you… has a 66% rate of failure."

"WHAT?" shouted Sakura. "Then that means… that means only one of us can pass!" She glared up at Kakashi defiantly.

Kakashi chuckled. "I did tell you that it was going to be difficult." His expression hardened, and he took out a clock with an alarm and placed it on a stump. _Okay, it's set_. He cleared his throat.

"I've set this clock to go off at noon. So, that means," he said. "That you have two hours to get… these." He finished by taking out two small bells from his pocket and dangling them for his team to see. "Those who fail to get one of these bells," he went on, "will be tied up to one of the stumps over there and will get no lunch." _Wait for it…_

As if on cue, he heard the sounds of stomachs growling- though, curiously enough, he didn't think he had heard Naruto's. _Hm, _he thought appraisingly. _At least one of them had the guts to go against my orders._ But his face remained stoic.

"Not only that," Kakashi continued, "But I'll also eat one of these right in front of you," he said, holding up a freshly-made bento, and all three of his students groaned and hung their heads. He smiled under his mask. _It's fun to be a sensei, sometimes._ His eyes narrowed.

"You only need to obtain one bell to pass," Kakashi said. "And there are only two, so one of you will definitely end up tied to the stump." He didn't miss Sakura's, and surprisingly Naruto's reactions to his declaration. "And… the person who doesn't get a bell fails," he said menacingly. "So at least one of you will end up getting sent back to the Academy." This time, all three of his students flinched, though they soon firmed their resolution. A twinkle entered Kakashi's visible eye. _Maybe… just maybe, they will have a chance…_

"And don't hesitate to use any of your weapons or techniques," Kakashi said unflinchingly. "To pass this test… you must come at me with the intent to kill, or else you cannot possibly pass."

"But Sensei!" Sakura blurted out. "You could be hurt or-!" She was cut off by Kakashi raising a hand.

"Sakura," he said, and she quieted. "I am a jounin, and as such, I do not think that any of you will be able to kill me. At most, I could be scratched or lightly injured- and most shinobi soon get used to much worse than that." He fixed her with his one-eyed gaze and Sakura looked away.

"Now," Kakashi said, and they all tensed.

"BEGIN!"

Everyone disappeared into the sides of the field.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. _The basics of a ninja are to hide one's self well… and it looks like all of them have done it._ He nodded in appreciation. Even Naruto, who he'd expected to charge out and challenge him to a deathmatch or battle royale, wasn't anywhere to be found. His respect for his new team rose a notch. "I think," he said quietly, more to himself than anything else. "That I'm beginning to like you guys."

Something twitched in the bushes to Kakashi's right and he zeroed in on it. Raising his kunai in preparation, he wasn't prepared to see… a fox? _What…?_ He concentrated, but couldn't catch the scent of any of his genin on the animal, so he assumed it wasn't a henge and turned away.

_Now… where are you?_

Suddenly, he heard another noise to his left. _There!_ he thought, and jumped over to where the sound was coming from, making sure to his himself among the branches and leaves.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Peering down, Kakashi saw… Sakura, standing unsteadily, kunai out and ready. _Of course,_ he thought. _She would be first._

"Well Sakura," he mused aloud, and the pinkette jumped and gasped, turning around to face him. "It looks like you'll be first to lose." Forming a handseal, Kakashi focused his chakra and concentrated. _Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique!_

From his perch, Kakashi saw his charge turn around with joy on her face, before that turned to quick horror as she saw… whatever she was seeing. She screamed, setting several birds on the surrounding trees into flight, and fainted, foaming at the mouth.

Kakashi sweatdropped. _Wow. That was just… really pathetic. Ah, well,_ he shrugged. _Time to find the others._ And so Kakashi leapt away back toward the clearing, almost not noticing the raven-haired Uchiha coming toward the spot just as he disappeared back into the brush. _Huh. So that's two accounted for. So… where's the third?_

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Landing back in the clearing, Kakashi looked around cautiously, not noticing anybody nearby. However, he did notice the fox he had seen earlier sitting towards the middle of the field. "Hey, little guy," he said brightly in greeting, walking over to it and patting it on the head. "How're you?" _And where is Naruto?_

Kakashi turned away from the fox, looking around for his students- and that was in a mistake. Suddenly, Kakashi felt a presence behind him and heard a loud snarl. Turning and blocking out of sheer reflex, the copy-nin lashed out and caught the offending object, throwing it back several yards where it landed. His eyes widened in alarm- it was the fox from before! Only now, it looked much bigger, much stronger, and was growling directly at him. Suddenly, Kakashi was reminded of the short exchange he'd had with the Hokage the other day.

o-o-o-o-_flashback_-o-o-o-o

"You see, Kakashi, there's been a development…"

Kakashi's head jerked up. "What do you mean, Hokage-sama? Naruto seems to be just a goof-off, just like you told me, right?" he asked carefully.

Sarutobi scratched his chin, looking pensive. He was quiet for a few moments, then-

"Actually, I'll leave you to find out yourself," the old man said, and Kakashi thought he saw a glint of… amusement?... in the Sandaime's eyes.

Kakashi turned to leave. "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Well-" Kakashi stopped in his tracks.

"I will give you a hint, though," the Hokage said, and his eyes suddenly twinkled. "You'll find that Naruto can change himself… far more easily than you may suspect." And he was silent again.

Kakashi gave a brief bow and left the room. _Now… what could that mean?_ he thought.

o-o-o-o-_end flashback_-o-o-o-o

Kakashi looked warily at the beast that now stood before him. No shinobi he knew of could produce a henge like that- after all, they were only illusions, not solid, after all. But… he couldn't discount the fact that there was a huge fox, muscles rippling with power, and ready to pounce, standing before him.

_Wait… a fox?_ Could it be something to do with Naruto? But, although he had been told that this had nothing to do with the Kyuubi, he couldn't help feeling a suspicion that his absentee student and this animal were most definitely connected. Shinobi who acted on their suspicions survived- and Kakashi was a survivor.

In a flash, Kakashi threw a kunai at the large fox, which jumped away and seemed to melt onto the ground. Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise as the kitsune remade itself into… Naruto?

So he had been right, in a way, though he had to be sure. He chuckled quietly to himself. _So, Naruto… looks like you are going to be interesting after all._ "Coming to attack?" Kakashi chided, and Naruto growled and launched himself at him.

Kakashi raised his hand to defend himself from the genin's attack- only it was no longer Naruto, but a small fox, the one he'd seen before. It managed to get past his guard and, with a small tinkling sound, was able to touch the bells with a single toed paw. _So,_ Kakashi mused. _He can somehow change his shape into a kind of fox, and with a quick reaction time as well. Looks like he'll be one to watch- and I was expecting the Uchiha to be interesting._

As Naruto reformed into his own shape, no sooner than several fractions of a second after he had changed back, someone sent several shuriken spinning at the jounin's back. From his spot in the bushes, Sasuke smirked- he'd just arrived after Kakashi had apparently knocked Naruto over, and had attacked on impulse. It looked like he was going to show just why he was rookie genin of the year- at least, until Kakashi burst into a poof of smoke, revealing… a log?

_Shit!_ Sasuke swore. _Kawamiri! He made me reveal myself!_ He tensed, ready to attack, and then saw a rustle out of the corner of his eye. _There!_ Sasuke spun into action, leaping with a flying kick at the shadow, which, as he connected, turned out to be his sensei after all. Sasuke smirked.

"So," Kakashi drawled. "Let's see if you really are better than the others… right Sasuke?" Sasuke jumped backwards and landed on even footing as he prepared to attack. He leapt at Kakashi and the two exchanged blows for a while, until Sasuke left the fray and glowered, sweating and breathing heavily.

"Well," said Kakashi. "You _were_ mostly right. You have given me a better show than the others did." Sasuke growled and started forming handseals. Kakashi's eyes widened. _What? How could he-?_

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu) Sasuke shouted, launching a great ball of fire at his teacher. Kakashi jerked in alarm and jumped away- _No way! How could he perform such an advanced technique at his age?_- only to be nearly met by a fist to the face. Kakashi twisted and found Naruto there, panting as he stood on the ground.

"Well," Kakashi began. "At least you both are at least trying." He yawned. "It's a shame about your other teammate, though." Naruto's eyes widened. _Sakura-chan!_ He growled.

_Kage Bunshin no jutsu! _ He thought, forming the seal, and suddenly there were ten Narutos, all charging their teacher. Kakashi raised an eyebrow. _Ah, so that's the technique he used to defeat the rogue chuunin, Mizuki._

Sasuke stared. _What? Ten Narutos? How-? And they're all solid! No illusions!_ His fists clenched at observing this new technique that the "dobe" was using.

"FINE!" Naruto shouted. "I'll take you down myself, and there's no way you can beat me!" In a flash, Kakashi was being attacked from all sides, though he quickly dismissed all of the clones. Naruto growled and formed ten more clones, attacking Kakashi again. This time, the copy-nin only looked bored as he destroyed the Bunshin.

"You know," Kakashi said. "You really should try to use another strategy." But Naruto was absolutely furious now, and he leapt at Kakashi without any other thought.

Kakashi himself merely backhanded the orange-wearing genin into a tree and he slid down before getting caught up in a trap that drew him up fifteen feet in the air. "WHAT?" Naruto yelled in aggravation, but Sasuke only smirked.

"Good," he said. "Now that that loser's out of the way-"

Suddenly, a loud noise was heard throughout the clearing. Kakashi visibly straightened, and Naruto stopped, looking confused. Sasuke looked around. _What…?_

"So," said Kakashi apologetically. "It would seem that your time is up."

Naruto crashed down on the ground and immediately looked affronted but hung his head. Sasuke just glared at his teacher, mentally berating himself for failing. Sakura was nowhere to be found.

"That means-"

"You all fail."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sakura flinched as she looked up at her teacher from where she was tied up to a stump. On either side of her, Naruto and Sasuke both glared up at Kakashi-sensei, and she was filled with apprehension and fear of her probable separation from Sasuke-kun.

Their stomachs all growled and Kakashi smirked. "Oh," he said. "You guys all look really hungry." All three genin glowered at him, but he waved it off and went back to reading his book.

"By the was," Kakashi went on. "Something about the training… None of you will have to worry about going back to the Academy." Sakura jerked her head. _What? Could this mean…?_

"Yup!" said Kakashi cheerily. "All three of you… should quit as shinobi!" All went silent.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" demanded Naruto. "Okay, we didn't get the bells, but why do we have to quit?"

Kakashi's expression turned menacing. "Because all three of you are little punks who shouldn't be ninja in the first place." Naruto and Sakura were visibly taken aback.

"You, Sakura," Kakashi began. "Were easily taken down by a genjutsu within only a small amount of time." The pinkette hung her head and Kakashi shrugged. "Honestly, if you haven't trained enough to be able to recognize an illusion of that simplicity, I doubt you'd even make an effort on my team." Sakura flushed.

"And _you_," Kakashi said, inclining his head toward Naruto. "I'll admit, you did interest me a bit, but… the second I irritated you and things looked like they weren't going your way, you completely lost it." He held up a finger as if scolding Naruto. "Shinobi must keep complete rein on their emotions, and those that don't do not deserve a chance to become ninja." He turned to Sasuke.

"And, finally, Sasuke," Kakashi said in disappointment. "Once again, you were correct- you were definitely more talented than your teammates."

"However," he continued. "You attempted to ignore them, and though you and Naruto attacked in tandem once, I'm fairly sure that it was more coincidence than anything else. I daresay that you might even be resentful for Naruto's interference." Sasuke grunted, but said nothing.

"And when Naruto was taken out of commission by myself," Kakashi said sharply. "You were encouraged by that fact, and in truth were happy that you had the chance to fight on your own, am I right?" Sasuke remained silent in the face of his teacher's disapproving glare.

"But Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled out. "This isn't fair!"

"Yeah!" Sakura said. "Just one more chance!"

Kakashi paused. "Very well," he said, and Naruto relaxed. "In one hour, I'll give you another test, and you _must_ pass this one." His gaze hardened even more. "This is your last chance, and if you fail…" The threat was left hanging in the air.

"Now," Kakashi said, tossing two bento lunches to Sasuke and Naruto, the only two not tied up. "You two can eat- you'll need your strength for the test to come. But DON'T," he warned. "Give ANY to Sakura- she stays hungry." And in a poof of smoke, he was gone.

Sakura sighed dejectedly, her dreams looking like they were being flushed down the drain. How could she be with Sasuke-kun if-?

"Here."

Startled, Sakura looked up from her mourning to see both Naruto and Sasuke offering her their lunches. "What-?" she asked, confused. "Didn't Kakashi-sensei say-"

Sasuke cut her off. "Hn. It doesn't matter. I need a strong teammate to help me pass this test, and if you're hungry you'll be worse than useless."

"Yeah!" Naruto put in. "Who cares what Kakashi-sensei said? You're our teammate, and so we'll help you out!" Sakura's heart warmed a bit.

"Thanks, guys…" she murmured.

A short gust was all the warning they had.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?"

Kakashi demanded, looking deadlier than ever. Naruto trembled, but shot back, "Hey! I don't care! Sakura-chan is our teammate, and we'll help whether you say so or not!"

"YOU….!" Kakashi growled, and even Sasuke flinched back at the tone of his voice.

"…Pass!"

_WHAT?_

"Good job- you guys are the first," Kakashi congratulated to their shocked faces. "All the others just did what I told them- they were all just morons."

"But- why?" Sakura shouted.

"A ninja must see "underneath the underneath,"" Kakashi said, and in that moment he looked more serious than ever before. "Those who break the rules are trash… but those who ignore and abandon their comrades are worse than trash."

"Alright!" Kakashi said loudly. "You guys pass! Meet me back here for training at seven in the morning tomorrow!" And he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"YES!" Naruto cheered, and he rushed off into town, undoubtedly to the ramen stand.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted and walked off, leaving Sakura still tied to the stump.

_What?_ Sakura thought. _How am I supposed to-? _She struggle for a moment, trying to get free, and then-

Suddenly, Sakura felt a… loosening… of the ropes around her, and when she opened her eyes, she looked down and saw, to her surprise, that she was no longer tied up. _How…?_

Resolving to solve this new problem later, she walked off the field, leaving it empty save for the leaves, and the wind.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: Yeah, some canon, some new, but don't worry! Once we get past Wave, that's when I can really start to screw things over!

Anyway, just bemoaning my fate. (Five days until summer… but until then, I have finals. Just kill me now…)

R&R!

-SoS, out!


	5. Chapter 5: Missions

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: 'Tis time for REVIEW CORNER!1!

Actually, I didn't really get much to respond to, so I'll be skipping it today…

(Why…why must you abandon me, reviewers? WHY?)

Heh… but anyways, thank you to Kenta Raikiri (for like, FOUR

Reviews- seriously, you rock.), and to dragonhalf-lover17. You've given me something to think about- in fact, it was one of these reviewers that prompted me to change Sasuke's mutation (so congrats!). You'll find out about it soon enough.

SHARE & ENJOY!

(H2G2 LOL)

OH! And before I forget…

There is going to be a poll at the bottom on what you think various characters should have as their powers, among other things. (YAYS!). So I'm expecting some SERIOUS response for that, guys.

OOH! And see if you can spot the Shout Outs in this chapter!

Where was I…

Oh yeah!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Chapter 5

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto flopped over on his bed, snoring loudly. The sun was just beginning to come up, but as the lights began to stream through his window, he just turned over, hugging and drooling on his pillow. He murmured something that sounded suspiciously close to 'ramen' in his sleep, as he began to snore again.

_Ring._

Naruto flipped over onto his side, and a trail of saliva found its way onto his sheet.

_Ring._

The blond swatted an imaginary insect out of the air above his head and then kicked the blanket off of the bed.

_RING!_

_RING!_

_RINGRINGRINGRINGRI-_

_SMASH!_

"Enhhhhhhhhh."

Naruto blearily rubbed his eyes and looked around his apartment, still half asleep. He scratched his froggy-nightcap tiredly and slowly ambled over towards the kitchen, reaching for a box of instant ramen.

Muttering to himself about alarm clocks and fists, Naruto blinked owlishly at a piece of paper on the wall. Squinting, he attempted to read the strange alien language that was written on it, although it later turned out to be plain Japanese.

"Mm," he mumbled to himself, and cocked his head to try to read the paper on the wall- that, as he now noticed, was a calendar.

It had a date on it.

Cursing to himself, Naruto just stood up, abandoning his ramen, and walked over, trying to read the words once again.

_First day of missions. Yeah!_

Those words were written next to a particularly cartoonish doodle of Naruto giving a thumbs-up.

There was another sentence inscribed below the first two.

_Be at Tower by 8:00!_

Naruto moaned and wiped his eyes again, scratching his back. His eyes wandered around the room until they finally found his clock- leaning up against the wall on his night table, seemingly unharmed by that earlier beating. He glared at it.

It didn't respond.

He glared at it some more.

Nothing.

Grunting, Naruto shuffled over to the clock and bent over to see the time. It read: 8:05.

…_By 8:00!_

"SHIT!"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto dashed down the street in his kit fox form- he found it was much easier to just slip between peoples' legs and through tight areas than it was to have to walk in a crowded area, continuously being jostled by hateful villagers and civilians. He swerved around the final turn and skidded to a stop, panting slightly.

Old man Hokage had told him that it was best to not let too many people know about his ability, except maybe his team, and so it a small red fox who walked into a dark alleyway and a blond genin jinchuuriki who emerged moments later. He grinned up at the Hokage's tower, and then had a sudden premonition of Sakura wailing on him. Shuddering, Naruto dashed in the front door, ran around the corners, and finally burst into the mission assignment room.

As Naruto hurriedly entered, Iruka felt his eyebrow twitch. "Naruto," he said quietly. "Would it kill you to be _on time_…especially when you're now a _shinobi?_"

Judging by the tick mark on his former sensei's face, as well as the image of Sakura readily cracking her knuckles, Naruto quickly threw up his arms in defeat. "Don't worry sensei… I just…uh…overslept."

Iruka relaxed. "Well, at least you were honest about it." _Unlike _another_ shinobi I could name._ "Anyway, just don't do it again."

Naruto nodded firmly. "No problem, Iruka-sensei!" The chuunin grinned softly and returned to paperwork.

"Hey…where's Kakashi-sensei? Is he late?"

Cue mass facefault.

Sarutobi coughed behind his hand and shook his head. "I'm afraid, Naruto-kun, that your new teacher has a propensity for being a bit tardy. As such, you may have to wait for a bit."

Naruto shrugged. "Eh. Okay. After all, it'll probably only be, like, what? Ten, fifteen minutes?" Sakura and Sasuke nodded in agreement.

Sweatdrop.

_These kids really have no idea of what they're getting into, do they?_

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"WHERE THE HELL IS THAT GUY?"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Some hours later, around 10:30, a silver-haired jounin leisurely strolled into the Hokage Tower, nose stuck in a book of smut. Giggling to himself every so often, Kakashi ambled up the stairs to the mission assignment room, and opened the door, only to find…

His team…glaring murderously at him.

He chuckled nervously. "Hey, guys," he said good-naturedly. "I got lost on the road of life. After all, this was this one person and this old lady who-"

"YOU'RE LYING!"

Kakashi's eye curved in a u-shape, like a smile, in a futile attempt to calm Naruto down. The blond was nevertheless still growling and glaring at him.

"**Over two hours,**" came the next voice, and Kakashi looked over to see Sakura's eyes blazing right at him, and he shifted uncomfortably at the aura of death that she was projecting over the room.

"**We've been waiting here…for you…for **_**two damn hours**__._" She finished the sentence menacingly, biting off the last syllables with extreme prejudice. All males in the room suddenly shivered at the ideas of what an angry Sakura could do.

"Maa, maa, Sakura," Kakashi said consolingly, voice shaking. "It wasn't on purpose, really, I…"

"I believe," interrupted Sarutobi. "That this may be an isolated occurrence. So please, give your instructor some modicum of peace." Sakura's body relaxed and Kakashi nearly collapsed- he was used to that sort of KI coming from elite enemy ninja, not prepubescent genin kunoichi! He noticed idly that both Sasuke and Naruto had slowly scooted away from their female teammate, though they were still glaring at him harshly.

Kakashi looked over to the Sandaime and silently sent a word of gratitude. The Hokage merely looked him in the eye and sent him, _Well, now you're actually going to have to show up…_

"So," Kakashi began, desperately trying to change the subject. "We're here for our first missions. Hokage-sama, Iruka-san, do you have any suitable chor- I mean, missions, for my team?"

Iruka nodded. "Yes we do, Kakashi-san. Your options are…"

"Cleaning Oda-san's pool.

"Helping at Tite-san's weapon shop.

"Cleaning the yard in front of Arakawa's workshop.

"And, of course-"

"MROW!"

"Catching Tora the cat."

Naruto twitched. "What the hell? Why do we have to do those lame-ass missions? I should be beating up bandits or saving princesses, not doing chores!"

Sakura hit him over the head. "BAKA! You have to work your way up from the bottom! As genin, we can only do low-level missions like these! Eventually, we'll be able to do higher-paid ones!"

"She's quite right, Naruto," Sarutobi said amiably. If only the boy could be serious once in a while…

"Fine," Naruto grumbled. He paused, an idea occurring to him. "Ojii-san…" he began. "Is there a limit to the number of missions that you can take?"

Sarutobi blinked once. "Well, no, but…"

He blanched. "Oh, Kami, Naruto…that's…" He then burst out into a rich belly laugh. "Oh, Naruto, that's ingenious!"

"What's he talking about, dobe?" Sasuke grunted. He _was_ a bit curious…

"I'm quite interested myself," Kakashi noted.

"Yeah! Tell us!"

Naruto grinned evilly at his team. "Three words: Kage Bunshin Missions."

*Beat*

Kakashi immediately hugged Naruto, crying tears of joy over not having to do the horrors of the D-rank, as Sarutobi began hitting his head on the table for not thinking of this for dealing with paperwork. Sasuke, Sakura, Iruka, and the other chuunin present watched this scene with varying levels of confusion, shock, and envy.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sakura grinned as she watched yet another group of clones wander up to the Tower after completing their latest mission, something to do with unpacking a bunch of boxes, filled with trading cards of all things. "Naruto, your clones are really great!" she said brightly.

Naruto smiled broadly. "Thanks, Sakura-chan! Hey, later, do you wanna-?"

"No, Naruto, no date," Sakura interrupted.

(Poor Naruto).

Not missing a beat, Naruto went on talking about something else. "So where's the emo-teme?"

Sakura twitched. "DON'T insult Sasuke-kun, got it?" Naruto was then suddenly nursing a large, newly earned bump on his head.

"…Okay, Sakura-chan."

"Alright, then." Suddenly, she was all smiles again. "Anyway, Sasuke-kun's over there. I think he had to check the garden for any weeds."

Even though Kakashi had been overjoyed at the prospect of doing loads of D-ranks effortlessly, he had told them sternly that they had to do _some_ missions together, in order to build teamwork before they could get harder missions.

"Done!" Naruto said happily, tying up the last bag of raked leaves. "So, Sakura-chan-"

"No."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto stretched idly as he walked home from the Hokage Tower- and then realized that he remembered all of the missions that had been done today, whether it was by his clones or the original, himself. He paused for a moment, confused- until it dawned on him.

Evil laughter rang out over that sector of the village, scaring a good number of villagers as well as a certain demonic cat, as it turned and ran back to its owner. No way in hell did it want to get in the way of _that_!

Naruto's grin was feral as he rushed off to his training ground, intent on testing his idea as soon as possible.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto smirked as he stood panting, sweat coming heavily down the side of his face. He had been right- anything that his clones experienced, he did too. So, in order to test it, he had made several dozen clones, and then had them all trying to transform.

The results had been staggering. He'd been able to make his bigger fox form more…what's the word…efficient!

Yeah…efficient.

Anyway, it had been really easy to change into that shape after he had dismissed all of the clones, and had felt all of their combined experience coming back at him. He grinned cheekily, to nothing in particular- maybe he'd be able to change into something else! He'd only tried it once before, but he'd barely managed to work the image of the squirrel into his head when his innards _twisted_, and he'd found himself lying on the ground, heaving up everything that he'd eaten for breakfast that day.

So…put off other forms until later. So now, with shadow clones.

Naruto brightened. This would definitely work out great.

And then, a thought hit him. He'd always hated schoolwork; after all, it was BORING, and plus, he'd never really had anyone to teach him to read. So, he had barely managed to get a grasp on basic shinobi skills, as well as being unable to read most words until early in his last year of school at the Academy. But with Kage Bunshin doing the studying and work _for_ you…

His grin grew wider.

Oh, yeah- it was a good day to be Uzumaki Naruto.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

For several hours, during the night, for some strange reason, the Konoha Public Shinobi library was filled with many orange-wearing clones who were all attacking the shelves with fervor. The head librarian glared at them, but they refused to disappear, so she just huffed and went back to her game of Solitaire.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sasuke walked slowly back to his apartment, nursing a spot on his elbow where he had gotten hit with a shovel. Damn old man…

Suddenly, his eyes flashed with red and he tripped, losing his balance. Seeing his reflection in a puddle of water, Sasuke gaped and prepared himself for the inevitable seizure- only it never came.

Instead, as he tried to get back to his feet, hand on his kunai pouch, he fell over again. Sasuke snarled and cursed before the reason for why he couldn't stand up straight hit him.

The ground was shaking.

It appeared to be a localized effect, with the vibrations not continuing much past the end of the alleyway, though the building in his left side was giving off disturbing-sounding creaking noises.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw a giant crate on top of a fire escape begin to tip over the side, directly above him. _No!_ From in front of him, a small crack emerged and gradually lengthened and widened, speeding its way toward the now panicking raven-haired genin.

_No…no…Stop!_

"Stop!"

As he blurted that out, the shaking calmed, and Sasuke breathed heavily. Had it been…? No, Itachi would never do something like this; it was far too weak. But…it had stopped when he had ordered it to.

Disturbed and thoughtful, Sasuke limped back home, nursing his now scraped and bleeding right leg. His only consolation was that no one had seen what had just happened.

When they would find it on patrol many hours later after nightfall, several squads of ANBU would be very hard-pressed to explain why there was a giant crack in the earth in the middle of a dark alley.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Ino tossed over restlessly in her bed. She had been trying in vain to get to sleep for the past hour or so, but it just wouldn't come. The blond threw her pillow angrily across the room and pouted at it for a moment, before getting up and sheepishly putting it back on her bed.

She lay back down onto her bedcovers. Okay, she knew that she couldn't sleep well, but…why? The door was closed, the window open, the room dark, and…

Then she hit it: the voices.

They were everywhere, whispering into her ear, talking into her head. Ino clutched her temples in an attempt to shut out the noise, though she made no effect on the whispering and murmurings. A few minutes later, though, she managed to shut the sounds away, and was able to get back to sleep… though they came back not forty minutes later.

She groaned and thrust her head under a pillow.

Needless to say, a _very_ tired Yamanaka Ino came to training the next day, glaring at anyone who made to ask why.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: Hello, my minions, and I hope that you all enjoyed this latest chapter. I did! (Well, at least I enjoyed _finishing _it).

So, it is now time for POLL TIME!

First up, choice of powers/mutations/etc.

Will _ get power (1), or power (2), etc…

You get the picture.

1. Kiba

a. Liquid Metal Skin

b. Energy Blasts

2. Shino

a. Invisibility/Force Field Generation

b. Acid Generation

3. Shikamaru

a. Light Manipulation (Yeah, I like irony. So what?)

b. Weather Manipulation

4. Neji

a. Liquification/Hydrokinesis

b. Precognition/Astral Travel (First one- also irony)

c. Psionic Weapons (creation and manipulation)

Also, feel free to recommend your own ideas for these guys- or anyone else. You never know, your idea might be used to replace one of my own. Also, each individual poll doesn't come down until the chapter that said character gets their power, just so you know. And, before I get any complaints, I'm doing my best to add in original/individual abilities in a world filled with freakin' NINJA! Just sayin', is all. So consider that before you complain, just as a forewarning. Moving on!

Next, I have to decide whether to give powers to these groups of people. So, should _ get a power? (Just for the record, it'll be quite difficult to work it into the plot, but…I can _maybe_ do it, just for these.)

Sand Sibs (Any one(s))

Haku

Any Konoha jounin/chuunin/etc.

Next, if I had my way, I'd make Orochimaru the Big Bad and ignore Shippudenn/Akatsuki. BUT! If it's that important to you, then I _may_ extend the story, though it would be rather difficult… But, it's up to you guys, I guess!

Oh, and one character WILL be getting telekinesis, before you ask…but you'll never guess who. In fact, I _dare_ you to guess who. (And you can't just put in ALL the names, that's cheating). Next, guess Ino's power (though she won't matter till after Wave; all that matters is _when_ she gets it.). I think it's fairly obvious (and clichéd), but what do I know? OH! And try Sasuke's too! (Thanks, Kenta Raikiri! THE POWER OF REVIEWS!1!11! Heh…)

Have fun! And, as per my other fics, if I get 15+ reviews, I'll update IMMEDIATELY.

OH! And, at some point in the near future, I'll be putting up my Universal Canon/Fanfiction Rant™ on my profile page, so check it out when it goes up.

R&R!

-SoS, out!


	6. Chapter 6: To Wave!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Chapter 6

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto walked slowly to the Hokage Tower, head cradled in his hands. He'd been sending his clones to the library for almost a month, now, and the headache from the rush of information hadn't gotten any better. It still felt like a herd of Academy students and rampaged across his skull, and, though Naruto fully appreciated the perks of learning this way, he did _not _enjoy the throbbing that was currently present behind his forehead.

He groaned- Team 7 had been doing D-rank missions for what seemed like ages, now, and Naruto wasn't looking forward to yet another day of raking, cleaning, or, Kami forbid, chasing Tora (that was the one mission that Kakashi-sensei still required them to do without Naruto's clones- he said that it built character. All that it built for his students was a grandiose desire to slowly strangle the thing until it died).

Naruto had seen a few of his former classmates around the village, but with all of the missions and training that he had been doing, there had been little to no chance to talk with anyone, not even Kiba or Chouji. For some reason, though, when he had rushed over to Hinata to say hi after a particularly long and sweaty day of hauling garbage, she had let out a strangled squeak and fell over. Naruto hadn't known that he smelled _that_ bad…

Seeing Sakura by the doorway to the Tower, Naruto waved excitedly, his headache already beginning to retreat…for now. At least, it was only a dull throbbing behind his ears, now. He saw Sakura wave happily back, and Naruto's face lit up- at least until he noticed Sasuke walking right behind him, eyes trained on the ground and strutting with a dismissive air.

Naruto colored; in almost all of the chores- I mean, missions- the 'Last Uchiha' had been insistent on doing all of the jobs he had been assigned by himself, and, of course, this kind of thing meant that Kakashi had done nothing but 'team-building exercises- instead of actually teaching them anything. Naruto almost snorted- and they called _him_ the 'dead last'.

If his teammates were ignoring him, though, that did provide a good opportunity for Naruto to go over what he had learned. The more that he had practiced his transformations during the month, it seemed, the easier and quicker that they came. It almost seemed as if he was building up a kind of 'transform muscle' of sorts. Naruto shrugged to himself as they passed the secretary and entered the stairs- with all of the confusing stuff that he was learning, he wouldn't be surprised if that was true.

Truth be told, a good amount of the information that Naruto learned on his nightly visits by proxy to the library was fairly confusing, and it took a good amount of time to make sense of the harder stuff, especially math or history. But still, there was _some_ interesting stuff in there, like strategy or tactics, and a book on those topics could keep a clone happy for hours.

Naruto'd also found a few references in books on the shinobi arts in general (as it wasn't as if there was some huge jutsu library- only some basic background information) that there were plenty of ways to increase chakra control- which, as he had found out by sending a clone to Iruka and the old man, respectively, was both one of his worst areas, as well as the reason why he couldn't make a bunshin. It came along with having one of the largest chakra stores of your generation, he guessed.

Naruto stood there tiredly as he watched Kakashi enter the room, book in hand- surprisingly, he was only a few minutes late- and remembered the one exercise that he'd done to try to increase control for his (apparently) massive capacity. He also remembered, a bit sourly, the Sandaime's explanation for his huge amount of chakra: it was a side effect of being a jinchuuriki, the old man had said, and Naruto had been nearly automatically wary of it, as anything having to do with the fox.

Admittedly, the tree-climbing exercise had been almost a gift from Kami in the way that it helped him. Naruto had only been practicing for three weeks, and already he could make it almost all of the way up the tree. On top of that, the blond had realized that, with his increased control, he was capable of actually making three healthy-looking bunshin- though, oddly enough, it seemed he couldn't make any fewer, and making a whole fifty illusionary clones was infinitely easier than making only three.

Naruto couldn't imagine, though, why Kakashi-sensei hadn't taught them this first thing, instead of concentrating entirely on ways to build up teamwork. After all, he though, if his teammates still thought of him as the 'dobe'- which, by the way, he still resented- then wouldn't it have been smarter to teach that to all of them at once to bring them to the same level on at least one thing? He'd asked Kiba what his sensei had been teaching them, and apparently tree-climbing was the first thing that they had learned! And in the first week, too! Although, apparently, Shino had known it already…

Naruto vaguely noticed that Iruka was saying something to his team, and then Sarutobi-ojiisan was offering them a particular mission. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw both of his teammates twitching, though Sakura's face was white and Sasuke was clutching a kunai rather tightly. One word from the Sandaime's mouth had stuck with him though…

_Tora…_

"HELL NO!"

Apparently, Naruto's headache-filled morning, as well as his general annoyance, had caught up with him.

Everybody turned to look at Naruto. "Naruto!" Iruka said, scandalized. "You do _not_ shout at the Hokage!" Naruto turned to look at his former instructor, eye twitching in memory of the apparently one-tailed demon cat.

"No way!" he repeated. "We are _not_ doing that damn mission again!" Sasuke and Sakura nodded their heads fervently in agreement, and, as Sarutobi embarrassedly noticed, so did Kakashi. Iruka slapped his hand on his forehead.

"Naruto…" the chuunin growled. "This is a D-rank mission. As a genin, you-"

"Yeah, yeah," said Naruto boredly. "D-ranks (*cough*chores*cough*) are for new genin, C-ranks are for experienced genin and chuunin, B-ranks are for chuunin and jounin, and whatever." Team 7 gaped at their formerly 'stupid' member. Since when had Naruto known all of this?

"All the same, Naruto," Sarutobi said firmly. "It is our opinion that, as of right now, you are simply not ready to do a mission of a higher difficulty than what you're already doing." Iruka gave a loud grunt in agreement.

"But, ojii-san!" Naruto protested, and a vein on Iruka's forehead pulsed. "We've been doing these lousy chore missions for WEEKS, now! We haven't done anything but clean or work or whatever If we aren't ready by now, we won't ever be!"

"Y-yeah!" Sakura shakily agreed. She'd been doing these missions for AGES, and they all pissed her off, especially with the way the garbage missions stunk up her hair. "If we never do a better mission, we won't get any better!" Even Sasuke gave a grunt of approval- at least, that's what Naruto assumed that it was of.

"Are you sure?" All of Team 7 gave a firm nod together.

Sarutobi smiled kindly at the hyperactive blond and the loud pinkette. "Very well, then," he chuckled. "It looks like I've been overruled. Team 7 will-"

"But, Hokage-sama!" Iruka protested. "They can't be ready, yet! How will they-?"

"Enough!"

Sarutobi fixed the chuunin instructor with a firm gaze, and Iruka quelled under it. "Iruka-kun, these genin have my full faith at the moment. Please do the same."

"…Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Now," said Sarutobi jovially. "It just so happens that I have to ideal mission for you four. We have a particular man who just arrived, and if you hadn't asked for a C-rank just now, he probably would have had to wait a few more hours for a team to help him. He is here for an escort mission, and there shouldn't be more to deal with than a few bandits, if that. Iruka- please bring Tazuna-san in, please." Naruto's face had lit right up at the prospect of actually getting out of Konoha, and nothing could dampen his mood, nothing at all-

"Hey, what's with the brats? Especially the short one with the stupid face."

-Except that.

As Kakashi made to restrain the struggling Naruto, who was currently giving promises of extreme violence to the elderly man in front of him, Sarutobi watched in bemusement as he explained the background of the mission to the other members of Team 7.

"…Tazuna-san here is a bridge builder in the Land of Wave, Nami no Kuni-"

"The best! A renowned architect known throughout the world!"

Unperturbed by Tazuna's interruption, Sarutobi went on. "He's requested an escort back to his home country, and it should take a total of maybe two to three weeks. Do you accept?" Kakashi quickly nodded, and let Naruto go who collapsed on the floor.

"All right, team!" Kakashi said. "Get your things and meet me prepared for a mid-length mission at the front gates in two hours exactly. We'll leave then.

"And Tazuna-san," Kakashi continued with a sweatdrop, gesturing toward the bottle that Tazuna held clenched tight in his fist. "Please be ready to go at the same time…preferably sober."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto walked, whistling, as he strolled along the road with his hands in his pockets, kunai at the ready in case of bandits, though they hadn't seen any yet. Kakashi was near the back of the group, behind Tazuna, and was reading his book, apparently without a care in the world. Sakura was twitching as she listened to Tazuna rant about his 'awesome skill', and Sasuke was seemingly self-absorbed.

As he walked along the road, Naruto thought about what the mission had been so far. They'd only been walking for a few hours, and according to Kakashi-sensei and the old drunk, the whole journey would take as many as three days by foot and walking. Naruto twitched. He hoped that they'd find some bandits soon, because he was BORED! Out of the corner of his eye, he could see much the same thing going through the minds of his teammates. If something exciting didn't happen soon, he was gonna…

Unfortunately, Naruto was soon going to get his wish.

Spotting a puddle up ahead, Naruto brightened considerably. It was ridiculously hot out, and a little water would be great to cool him off! In some small, logical corner of his mind, he was wondering why there was water when it hadn't rained for days, but those thoughts were quickly pushed aside in favor of something actually new to do.

Naruto ran toward the puddle, and Kakashi's eye widened. _Naruto!_ He'd noticed the suspicious puddle almost immediately, and he hadn't wanted to warn his team in case the enemy overheard, but if Naruto was putting himself in danger, then…

But before the jounin was able to call out, Naruto was already bending over to splash his face in the water- and two figures emerged from the liquid's surface, carrying a long, deadly looking chain.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out, noticing the danger that her blond teammate was in. Naruto's eyes widened, and, as if on autopilot, he quickly made a seal and disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving behind a log- Kawamiri no jutsu. Sakura and Kakashi together breathed a sigh of relief.

Naruto appeared beside Sasuke, kunai ready and eyes wide. "Who the hell are you guys?" he shouted, but the two ninja didn't respond, instead running toward Kakashi, one on either side of the chain, sharp edges glinting in the sun. Kakashi raised a kunai knife as well, but was apparently unable to act either.

"One down."

He was torn apart into shreds and his students' eyes widened-

Naruto snarled and Sasuke narrowed his eyes, both leaping out after the two shinobi who had attacked them.

-and a log hit the ground, sliced and cut apart, though it went unnoticed by the others.

Sasuke leapt forward, catching one of them in a drop kick that was quickly returned, and as he caught his balance in the air, Sasuke was attacked from below with several shuriken, which he was just barely able to deflect.

"Ugh…" Sasuke grunted, holding his arm where a single shuriken had caught him and where a single thin line of blood was now showing. Spotting weakness, his opponent ran ahead, aiming to strike- and Sasuke finished the chain of handseals that he had begun.

_Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!_

The enemy nin's eyes widened and he raised his hands to deflect the huge fireball coming towards him- but it was no use, and the blaze passed through him, leaving him charred and unconscious.

"Brother!" the other ninja shouted, but he was unable to do anything- mostly because he already had enough on his hands.

When the ninja had revealed themselves, Naruto had instantly attacked, throwing shuriken and kunai, and then fighting with punches and kicks, all of which were instantly avoided.

_Shit!_ he thought. _He's too fast for me as it is! And the way he moves- it's difficult for me to track the way he moves. I've got no choice- fox time!_ With a growl, Naruto began to change nto his fox form, and the enemy nin's eyes widened- he hadn't been expecting _this_, especially not from a couple of genin! Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his brother beginning to struggle with the black-haired kid- but it seemed that his own fight just got a lot harder.

Yelping and sputtering, Naruto threw himself at the man, claws and teeth flying everywhere, and, because of Naruto's unpredictability and his nose, the nin was unable to avoid the fox's reckless attacks.

_What the hell?_ he thought, clutching his chest where a particularly long claw had caught him, drawing a deep ragged gash across his breast, and he eyed Naruto warily, the four-foot tall fox breathing heavily, its muscles rippling as it crouched- and then turned back.

"I've been wanting to try this out for days!" Naruto shouted gleefully, and he formed the hand sign for Kage Bunshin. Up in his spot in the branches- Kakashi's eye widened- _can_ _he_-?

Just like that, ten clones formed by Naruto sides, and Sakura gaped- those were more solid clones! How did he do that?

"Let's go guys!" Naruto said with a snarl. "For Kakashi-sensei!" And all of the Narutos changed into foxes, huge beasts each of them, and threw themselves at the enemy shinobi.

He didn't stand a chance.

Several hundred bloody cuts later, both of the brothers lay together on the dirt of the road. Kakashi himself came strolling out of the trees, book in hand- until Naruto punched him in the gut.

"…So," Kakashi said, once he got his breath back. "Good job, everyone- though, Sasuke, you may not want to use a fire jutsu on someone that we may have to interrogate." Sasuke grunted and turned away.

"The hell was that?" Naruto bellowed. "You just let us think that you're dead, and then just come out of nowhere and-!" He froze and stopped talking.

A hand rested on Naruto's head and Kakashi ruffled the boy's hair fondly. "Good job, Naruto," he said proudly.

_He…acknowledged me._

"Sakura," Kakashi said firmly. "Good idea, protecting Tazuna." The girl relaxed, though she was more than a little shamefaced as well.

"Now," Kakashi said, his face turning stormy and hard. "You." He pointed straight at Tazuna, who gulped. "I recognize these two- they're the Demon Brothers, two chuunin-level missing-nin from Kirigakure. We're lucky that we beat them, though they are infiltration specialists, and if we come across any more situations like this, my team could be in danger. I know for a fact that these two weren't after me, and there's no way that this could be coincidence, so…" His glare hardened.

"Tell me why these two are after you…or else we'll turn around right now." Tazuna flinched.

"All, right," the bridge builder relented. "It all starts with Gato…"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As they sat around the fire that night, staring up at the stars, Sakura suddenly spoke up. She was sitting on a log by the tent, her hair down, Sasuke-unwillingly- right beside her.

"Naruto," she said tentatively. "What…exactly…was what you did against that Mist guy back there?" Tazuna blinked and even Sasuke leaned in a bit to hear.

Naruto stared for a moment and then chuckled uneasily. "Eh…alright then." His expression grew serious. "It's a long story…"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

OMAKE

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Naruto appeared beside Sasuke, kunai ready and eyes wide. "Who the hell are you guys?" he shouted, but the two ninja didn't respond, instead running toward Kakashi, one on either side of the chain, sharp edges glinting in the sun. Kakashi raised a kunai knife as well, but was apparently unable to act either.

Naruto held his breath- and suddenly his teacher was standing there, unharmed. "Don't worry," Kakashi said cheerily. "It was only a jump rope, see?" He held up the offending object.

"I do have scratch, here, though," the copy-nin said worriedly, pointing at his wrist. "Do you think I should get it checked out?"

Twitch.

"DAMN YOU, 4KIDS!"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AN: 1st omake! (It wasn't very good…)

Don't feel like doing reviews, so… Bye! I'll do them all next update!

R&R!

-SoS, out!


	7. NOTE

NOTE: I, for the moment, have given up on this story. The premise just does not work in this sort of environment, and it also is one of my earlier works, so it 'tells, not shows.' In other word, the early writing (and much of the later writing as well) SUCKS.

So, I'm sorry, but unless anyone wants to adopt this, I can't think of anywhere to go with it. Sorry.

-SoS


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